Feline Fragments is written/compiled by Patrick Roberts Copyright © 2003-08 Purr 'n' Fur UK Certain features on these pages use JavaScript

[ Home | Famous | Featuring | Fabled | Folios | Fun | Philately | Fragments | Flotsam ]

Fragments 8

James, the Council cat

Councillors of the North Shropshire District Council who meet in the small town of Wem, in the West Midlands county of Shropshire in England, in August 2006 reported that they had had an unusual visitor sitting in on one of their meetings: a tabby-and-white cat. Apparently he frequently visited the council offices, especially liking the Customer Contact Centre, which is generally busy during daytime; but he had also attended a meeting. Revolving doors, or doors with sensors, seemed to cause him no problems. 'He is very docile and is no trouble,' said one of the councillors. 'He came into one of the council meetings to see how we were getting through the agenda, and sat on the back row with the councillors. As a resident of North Shropshire, he probably thought he should see what we were up to.'

Staff were concerned that the cat, who seemed well fed, might have an owner who thought he'd gone missing, so he was pictured in the local paper. Wem resident Alison Evans made herself known as his owner, and said his name is James. She knew he wandered — he was a regular visitor to the local primary school, St Peter's, and also to the car dealership of Wem Motors — but she hadn't known he was making friends with the councillors too!

During October James needed expensive surgery following some incident in which he was injured; it isn't known whether someone kicked him or he was hit by a car, but his stomach was displaced into his diaphragm — quite a serious problem. The Council members were so upset to learn of his injury that the chairman of the council and the town mayor decided to donate towards his vet's bill, and to ask fellow councillors to do the same. A number responded, with the result that the bill of £490 (over 900 US dollars) was paid. Owner Alison, who has three other cats, said she was extremely grateful. 'At the moment he's recovering in his own little bedroom, away from the other cats,' she said, 'and is lively and purring. It's quite nice, as usually I don't get to see much of him!'

Fragments  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  9  |  10  |  11

---

If you would like to comment please contact me,

Return to
Feline Fragments index

Other sections:
Famous Felines
Featuring Felines
Fabled Felines
Feline Folios
Feline Fun
Feline Philately
Feline Flotsam

or visit the Purr 'n' Fur home page

Our featured feline: your companion through the Feline Fragments section is Maggie. She came as a kitten from Powys Cat Rescue. One of their volunteers had earlier seen her wandering around, apparently uncared for, and thought her rather young to be just left to roam around. The person 'responsible' for her said she 'didn't care', and so the youngster was taken in for rehoming. She was about 4 months old when I brought her home; she seems a very self-assured soul, probably because of her early experience, and was soon climbing all the available trees in the garden. She has grown into a handsome and affectionate cat, with superb whiskers; she spends a lot of time out and is a demon hunter. As the photo shows, she also loves getting into things! (see it here without the puzzle effect)

Copyright © Patrick Roberts & Purr 'n' Fur UK 2003-08
All rights reserved
Images and content (whether original or used at Purr 'n' Fur with permission) may NOT be reproduced
at another website or otherwise copied or used without prior permission.
Direct linking (hotlinking) to ANY images on this site is strictly forbidden.
If you want something, !