Greeba 

A rescued cat, handed into the vet having been found nearly dead on the outskirts of Kirrie, was saved but needed a short-term home.

Elspeth Stirling of OSCAR asked if we would look after her for a while. I don't know if she'd been a feral cat but she wanted nothing to do with people. We gave her a safe place - an upturned cardboard box with bedding in a warm bedroom which she only left to come out for food and drink when no-one was around or she thought I was asleep. For weeks we only saw a red eye glaring at us out of a slit in the side of the box.

Luckily she took to using a litter tray. She was a very poor soul. When my cousin Lindsay Guthrie was told about her he said, "That's only half a cat you've got!" She'd only one functioning eye, one tooth, a split tongue, quite deaf, virtually dumb except for purring and very aggressive for about a year before we gained her trust and she became a very affectionate and happy cat.

We named her Greeba with reference to Greebo, Nany Ogg's cat in the Disc World novels. By that time there was no question of re-homing - her home for the rest of her days was with us.