Lucas

[lancashire lass]

Can you believe it has been 5 years (21st December 2019) when I went to the RSPCA and adopted Lucas. On Christmas day after lunch (and he also enjoyed some turkey too), he was reluctant to get off my lap but I was stuffed and not about to go nowhere so it was nice. It was lovely to hear him purring and being so content. He particularly likes stretching rolling over so my hand naturally rests on his belly and enjoys having it rubbed, but he also likes it when I give him a hug (obviously not a tight squeeze but it doesn't phase him when I hold him against my body, and if anything, the purr gets louder) So different to when he first came home when I barely got a few seconds before he couldn't get off my lap fast enough. One thing I have noticed is that he is no longer a small cat - his body length has definitely got longer, but he still has that same cute little bushy tail. And he is definitely getting a little tubby round the belly - it seems to be a seasonal thing because he eats more in winter than in summer when he is also more active outdoors.

I reread some of my earlier posts - especially the hissing at me when I used to visit him at the shelter until I brought him home in January. I can say he has never hissed at me since then and he has definitely got more vocal (his first meows were so sweet and quiet but now he is a lot more demanding) And his palate has definitely widened since I brought him home - the shelter said he only ate biscuits but I think it is probably because the food he was fed was not nice. His favourite treats are chicken (surprisingly, he prefers the supermarket ready cooked to mine but I suspect it is the seasoning rather than my cooking), cheese, tinned tuna but even when I think he'll turn his nose up, he'll eat whatever I give him (I had cooked some sausages and as I was chopping them up to put in a sausage hash, he meowed at me as if to say "and where is mine?" I told him he wouldn't like it (being spicy) and gave him a little piece which he then promptly ate and looked at me for more!)

Or when he first ventured from his little bed to investigate me sitting in the living room - first hiding behind the door and peering at me from the gloom, or the giraffe impression when I left a little treat just beyond his reach. These days he comes running in to the living room at full gallop and with both front legs, will then knock my legs as if to say, "I'm home, pick me up" - so bossy. And he definitely gets upset when I have to leave the house to go to work - many a time he runs to the front driveway as I am reversing the car out of the driveway and he worriedly looks at me. I think he has been quite spoilt by how much time I spent at home - first during Covid, then with being on long term sick leave, not once but twice. However, he is definitely an outdoor cat especially in summer when I barely see him but come winter, he knows where its warm and dry although his igloo bed has long been abandoned and his sleeping places change that I never know where he'll end up.

One thing has never changed - he is still timid of other people and will run away when anyone walks by or approaches the house (especially in summer if I've left the front door slightly ajar) I remember when I was so reluctant of letting him out of the house for the first time as he didn't seem to respond to me as I would have liked but bizarrely, he sat on the back door step as though there was a glass wall in front of him and when I picked him up to take him out, he was almost frightened of going outside. So some things have changed.