Happy Gotcha Day, Gundel!

It's hard to believe that it has been eight years since a beautiful little panther barged into my life.
Oh dear, you should see her face. Actually Gundel did nothing of the sort. She harmlessly walked into my sister's yard and got a friendly welcome from her later catnapper even she didn't know it then.
I don't think I ever told Gundel's story here before, so it's about time.

As I said, one day Gundel just walked into the yard. She was so terribly thin, her fur looked really dull and overall she just looked sick.
After my sister had given her something to eat which she wolfed down, she left again.
I had seen her from my other sister's window, and as I do love me a black cat, I yelled down that I would take her.
Gundel had disappeared, though, which made us feel bad because she really seemed to need help. Luckily she turned up again a few days later and my sister scooped her right up - no resistance at all - and took her to her flat.
It was probably the first time in a while that she could just lie down and relax, but of course she didn't know that it was off to the vet's the next day.
She didn't have a chip, she weighed only 2.9 kg (not even 6 1/2 lb.), she had one cloudy eye from herpes, and the things she did in the litter box could have wiped out a small country (not the first cat to try that in my house).
I tried to find out if she belonged to someone while she was staying in quarantine - we had to wait for her blood results and have the litter box issues cleared up before letting her get together with Greebo and Ponder - in the library.

The first day she stayed on the window sill, looked, slept, and ate. I can't imagine what her life in the streets had been like because she just looked utterly exhausted and happy not having to move. She didn't even seem to have the strength to show that strange human if she still had some fighting spirit in her.

If she had run away, got lost or if someone had thrown her out, I never found out, but I knew I wanted to help her forget about her experiences in the street.
I don't know if I succeeded in that because until today she sometimes wakes up yelling and looks around confused and scared - at least that what it looks like to me - and then goes back to sleep when I pet and cuddle and whisper to her. It's heart breaking to watch, but luckily it doesn't happen often.

When we got green light rom the vet, I opened the door to her prison (with two very comfy armchairs with nice blankets which was really all she had wanted at the point apart from food) and hoped for the best with the boys.
Greebo was not very interested in her. He was more like "Yeah, new kid, not the first one, it's fine with me, do you think she'll still want to eat that?". He was such a sweet baby.
Ponder, on the other hand, was interested. He wasn't sure what this small thing was and he was confused that the small thing wasn't interested in him.
The lady went straight to the bedroom and hid underneath the bed for about two days, only a little paw or the tip of her tail peeked out. She came out for food, though, which she still needed so badly that she ate half of a huge antibiotics pill I had put down next to her while wondering how to make her take it.

Then she spent a few days on the bed.
Can you tell how different her fur already looks here? She was still very skinny, though, more than you can see here.

Eventually, she started exploring the place and she didn't take any nonsense from the boys.
Greebo didn't mind her at all and Ponder was happy to play with her. They liked slapping the other's butt and then the offender ran until he or she was caught and slapped back. It was so fun to watch. They never slept next to one another, though. There always had to be a little gap which makes it even more amazing how close der Dekan is sometimes allowed to sleep near Gundel now.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I remember showing it and some other angles on Facebook and asking jokingly how on Earth I was supposed to tell them apart!
Believe it or not, a few people informed me - not as joke - that Gundel was smaller than Ponder. Seriously now? I'm so glad they pointed it out to me!
Not that she was a kitten. My vet guessed her age at about 3 or 4 which means she'd be 11 or 12 now. I think she must still be 3 or 4. 6 tops. (Remember I said I'm not good at math?)
And Ponder was just a really big boy. Not fat - he really wasn't - but big and wonderful.

Ever since Gundel has been the Lady of the House. Meffi was my Queen and Esme was my Princess, and Gundel doesn't look like a Duchess or a Marchioness, so Lady it will have to stay.

She's named after Gundel Gaukeley, by the way, which is the German name for Disney's Magica de Spell. The initial plan had been to make her a Nanny Ogg (Discworld), but her sleek black look and the way Gundel sounds to German ears - at least mine - made that a way better name.

My little witch lady was quite the fighter in the early days. Understandably, she was not sure how far she could trust me, and often when I petted her, she snapped at me, never seriously, but very quickly and it made me jump every time. That quickly got less and less, though, and she hardly ever does it now unless I'm terribly annoying (meaning I pet her three seconds too long, so that's fair).
Only if I try to pill her directly, she turns into a clawed octopus, a deadly one. Luckily, I can crush the pills she's getting (allergies) and liquid snacks - I call them squishies - are too tempting for her to refuse. I wish I could put eye drops in her food, too! She's fine with me cleaning her eye, but not putting something in it. Yeah well, I don't like that myself, either.

Lately, she has developed a few bad, but not tragically bad habits, influenced by the brat, no doubt. One of them is the ripping out of the kitchen baseboard/s under the cabinets (she definitely learned them from him).
I put her on a Wanted poster for vandalizing and she bitterly complained about that on Ponder's blog which she has taken over.
You know how cat people often are, though. We are secretly proud of what brats our feline overlords can be, and after Gundel had been down for months after problems with both knees, it was good to see her up to shenanigans again.

Gundel, my sweet, here's to eight more years (at least)!