Aha a budgie! Hope he doesn't go in for free-flying....or if he does then Lucy will need to be excluded for his flights.

Did you enquire whether she was a he perhaps? I ask because my brother's family had a lovely male cat called Lucy. They had made the mistake of allowing their then 3 year old daughter to name him....She refused to be persuaded that Lucian might be a better name under the circumstances

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Cestina's dolls houses - Laterne, Laterne...

Glad Lucy has arrived safely and is settling in well. Enjoy!

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''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Wishing you and Lucy lots of fun and happiness.

Ah, yes. My mother once had a very nice tabby kitten called Tiger, who suddenly turned into Tiger Lily upon the production of kittens...

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... Anna made up her mind for once and all that there must be something about the Chalet School that affected all concerned with it with mild insanity!

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that tabby cats were always female.

ETA From this article on Wikipedia, it appears I was wrong. It was interesting to read more about tabbies.

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''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Tortoiseshell cats can only be female, unless they are hermaphrodites (XXY chromosomes). Maybe that's what you were thinking of, Cal. Ginger cats are usually male, although if there is a genetic reason for that I don't know what it is.

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The Chalet School has done it again!

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My previous cat (a black longhair) mated with a pale ginger (it was a Sunday breakfast time and very embarrassing as we had a family member staying with us). Result - 1 female tortoiseshell and 1 male silver tabby. We kept both and took them all to the vet asap. My present family (black shorthairs) came from cat rescue.

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Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

Yep, that was it. I blame the advancing age. We had two ginger toms when I was growing up, but one was the cat I mentioned in a previous post, who escaped from a cattery and the other one was found dead in a neighbour's garden (suspected poison, but not tested in anyway). After that, we avoided ginger cats, as they seemed to be unlucky for us!

Apparently, you can have ginger females, though I think they are less common, at least in the UK.

This BBC webpage explains it better than I can. Apparently, there are 3 ginger toms to every ginger female, which makes it what we used to call a recessive gene when I did O level Biology a long time ago.

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''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

The Whiskas website has a lot of interesting and helpful advice. i particularly liked the relationship between so-called domestic cats and their big cousins in the wild.

Lucy and I are getting on well, but I am a little bit worried about leaving her alone while I'm at work tomorrow. She seems very clingy - if I'm settled in one room she will lie down and sleep with me or a little way away, but as soon as I leave the room she jumps up and follows. I managed to persuade her to let me shower on my own but she sat outside the door and meowed the whole time! I'm hoping that after ten hours on her own she'll just get used to it, but what if she's miserable?

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"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

I'm sure she'll be fine has she settled in well?

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Wishes the land of Merlin and magic was real

I'm afraid you may come home and find poo in places you would prefer not to find it. You might want to leave some doors closed to limit the potential for damage

Not much you can do unfortunately, she will get used to it soon but in the mean time things may be unpleasent. Maybe you could try leaving the radio on or something like that, might make her feel less alone?

Feliway! I know I've suggested it already but it will help her feel at home. We use the plugins, which last a month at a time, but you can get other products too.

It sounds as though she has been lonely for a while and she's nervous about you leaving her . You are right, she will get used to it, but until she does she'll probably find it quite stressful when you're out, which is why, as Exile says, there may be an increase in "accidents". Leaving the radio on softly is a good suggestion, and when you get home, give her lots of fuss. And if she does toilet in the wrong place, whatever you do, don't punish her. She will know that she's upset you but not why, which will only make her more stressed.

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Sounds like Lucy's really taken to you! It may be a bit too early for this, but try leaving a piece of clothing you've worn but not washed somewhere. It'll have your "smell" on it and may help to reassure her.

Cats do adapt very quickly and they LOVE routine, so although you may have a traumatic day tomorrow, she'll latch on very quickly to your work pattern.

I haven't had a chance to get any Feliway yet, but I will do, probably on Wednesday! I've shut her into the living room and kitchen, where her food and water and litter tray are... I do hope she'll be ok!

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"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

Cariad insistson accompanying me to the loo, although she leaves if I run any water. She obviously feels safe with you -a cardboard box lined with an old t shirt of yours may make her feel more secure.

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Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

Spock used to do that too, but the door always had to be left open. Unfortunately, he never grasped that, when I had visitors, I had to close the door. He would be left outside complaining bitterly at the top of his voice. Visitors, unused to the volume a Siamese can produce, would sometimes ask if he was in pain.

Spock - what a wonderful name. Mine were already named when I got them and I didn't want to confuse them.

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Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

A lot of cats seem to like following you to the loo. Simba is very keen on it - which would be fine if he didn't insist on poking me with his paws whilst i'm on the loo. Sam pops in occasionally. Henry wasn't very interested in people going to the loo but he was fascinated by people taking baths.

Spock and his littermate Dracs were already 13 years old when they came to live with me permanently, so I can't take any credit as, like you, I didn't try to change their names. Their "proper" names were Rameses and Pharoah, but they only answered to Spock and Dracs. I was told that, as kittens, Spock's ears were out of all proportion to the rest of him and Dracs had rather prominent "fangs", hence their nicknames. They lived to be 20½ and 19½, so I had them for a lot longer than I'd bargained for, but loved every minute.