At the start of December , my parents noticed a new cat wandering about
their back yard. My parents have a large back yard, and Dad has turned all
of it bar one small strip of lawn into a minature botanicl garden, with a
desert area, a jungle area, a native area, a swampy area etc etc. It
attracts all the local cats.

Around christmas , my parents noticed this one particular "new" cat was
starting to look rather thin, and it had started to approach them, meowing
and wrapping around their legs.

They took pity on it, and started to leave food and water out. My parents,
only on a pension, and not willing to truly adopt a cat, only left out cheap
generic food, but at least this new cat was no longer starving.

The new cat clearly adopted my parents, even if my parents didn't want to
adopt the new cat.

Eventually the new cat got friendly enough to be picked up, and there on the
collar was his name, Jet, and a phone number.

My parents rang it every day starting on the 27th of December. On the 6th of
January it finally answered.

Apprantly Jet was the cat of the lady on the phone, but he cost her $500 at
the vet to have a tick removed, and she wasn't prepared to pay that sort of
cost again. The vet said her area was prone to ticks, so she gave the cat to
her daughter, who apparantly lives somehwhre in my parent's area. Except
that her daughter has gone on holidays and she doesn't know who is supposed
to be caring for the cat.

As of the 13th of January, no-one has come forward to claim Jet.

The tragic thing, in my view, is that Jet is clearly a pure bred cat used to
the good life. He is a persian cat, with great big round orange eyes, the
"pug' persian face, and a gloriously thick pure black coat. I can tell he's
used to being fed by hand because when i offered him my fingers to smell he
started licking then trying to eat them as if they had tid-bits on them (he
definatley wasn't biting aggressively or in an over-stimualted sort of way)n
and apprantly didn't really know what to do with cheap kibble placed in a a
bowl for quite some time (and has problems eating it anyway with the pushe
din face). He also has some really large matts in his otherwise glorious
coat.

But he's the most friendly and affectionate creature, clearly used to be
being spoiled rotten, and now he's forced to live under my parents house
(they won't let it in, Mum is terrified of having a cat around lest she fall
and break her hip as he's twisting aroun dher legs), eat cheap kibble and
contend with the other neighbourhood stray cats.

I've never met a friendlier cat. He even let Cary play with him after
meetign Cary for he first time, which says something about his trust in
humans, even little ones (despite the crappy way they've treated him), and
tried to get into my car when I left my parent's place.

I strongly suspect that the daughter of the previous owner will not be
coming to reclaim Jet, otherwise surely she would have done so already, and
whoever is *supposed* to be looking after him (assuming there is a somebody)
is clearly doing a very bad job. My parents don't want to keep Jet, knowing
that he ought to find a better home than they can offer, and I can't add a
third cat to my household (besides Shmogg & IBKFergus would eat him alive).

He's so loving and friendly, and obviously a pure-bred critter, I can well
imagine he'll be re-homed quickly. But int he mean time, can people spare a
few purrs for him? (And if someone can tell me how to relieve a long haired
persian-type cat of matts, I'd also be grateful)

Yowie