Helpful Cat,
A collection of cartoons by Neil Giggins.


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Latest News

March 2010

Web site change.

This site has always been run on a free server (generously by www.5quidhost.com), but we started getting too much bandwidth and therefore had to move to a properly hosted paid for site.

Bear with me for any teething problems.

Thanks for your understanding

5th November 2009

Please look after your cats tonight. Cats and dogs do get very spooked at this time of year... Well, most of them.

2nd November 2009

Web site changes.

I found a couple of bugs in the image upload. This stopped any of your images that you uploaded with your board entries from displaying. I have fixed this now, and all your pictures of your moggies should appear.

I currently run this site on a free service, and my disk space was running low, so I also had to implement an image resizing script, to stop massive pictures from being kept on the server. You don't have to do anything, the site will take care of it.

11th June 2009

Its a year tonight, the accident.

I think we might lock him in tonight. Don't want to tempt fate. It seems a long time ago, just a year. A year ago tonight we went to sleep with a 4 legged Archie in the house, only to be woken up at 1 or 2am with one of the worst sites a pet owner can see.

But, he's done ever so well over the last year, and we're very pleased with his progress and recovery.

March 2009

Just recently, Archie has really been suffering the last couple of days. Not in pain (I don't think.) But from trying to use his missing leg. Very often he'll be sat in the hallway trying to scratch his ear with his phantom leg. Perhaps he's just forgotten about it, perhaps any niggling pains he's had have gone away.

I would say that his fur is 99.9% grown back now, and maybe its less noticable...

Also, he still seems to be pretty clumbsy!!! I thought he would get over this problem after a while, but he still loses his footing (at the rear) sometimes. It can be amusing sometimes, but we worry he could hurt himself falling off something. But saying that, he still manages to get to places my other cats won't go! He's a cracking climber... Not sure if he always was, or if he's adapted to not being able to jump as high, but he can scale a 6 foot fence with ease, and trellis fences pose no challenge to him what-so-ever!!!! He's our rock climbing cat... I'll try to get a video of him doing it one day...

Merry Christmas!

Archie Cat would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and an extremely happy New Year!

Its been a tough second half to this year, what with the accident, and the stress of moving home. But we've managed to come through it and now looking forward to a bright 2009. Here's to raising a glass to happy days.

Archie.

December 2008

Moved House!
Finally, after months of effort, we've managed to move out into the country. Archie now has lots of open space to explore without the worry of cars!

Moving him was a lot easier than we'd anticipated. We'd read lots of pieces of advice on how to move and keep the stress levels down. We followed most of them and bought some Felaway cat spray to ease the cat's nerves. Everything was spot on to be honest and Archie has already ventured out of the garden into the field next door (its a bit worrying when he disapears off into the night for an hour! And you wanna see the bits of shrubbery he brings back...)

November 2008

I'm beginning to think that Archie was hit by a lorry now, more than a car. He is very jumpy whenever a lorry passes the house and sometimes will run away, whereas he's not that bothered by cars (although, he still won't leave the safety of the garden - which we are quite pleased about to be honest). A lorry accident would explain the completely shattered leg bone too.

He's still gaining his balance, and still has clumsy episodes - knocking things off the coffee table. But his jumping is getting a lot better. He can now jump up into the airing cupboard which is a good 4 feet off the floor.

He's gaining a name for himself now, on a handful of cat forums and we're pleased to see that visitors are gaining something from this site. That was the whole point of it after all.

October 2008

I think its safe to assume Archie won't be having any more phantom pains. I really believed that this would be a much rockier path to walk. Its been over three months since the accident now and we've only had a handful of incidents.

Archie cat curled up on the bed in a ball

August 18th 2008

Well, Archie is definitely back to his old self. Chasing my other cats around and basically nailing them every chance he gets. He's pretty much used to being kept indoors at night now. We don't want a repeat of that night... Moving house soon though, so things might change as yet. But he's doing so well. We're very proud of him.

July 25th 2008

Archie has now finished his 3 weeks of pills. He took every single one without a fuss (the joys of having a greedy cat!) and he has not has a single phantom pain session since the originals.

His stump is still looking a bit bald, but thats because he's such a hairy cat. We think its going to take another month or two to grow back completely, but its looking much better now. He still is a bit wary of us touching it and I guess it will take a year or so for the pain to completely go. I can't imagine how long it takes to get over an amputation.

July 1st 2008

Archie's now on a 3 week course of pain killers to help aleviate the pain, but honestly, there is not a lot you can do for a cat who is having phantom pains. We've just got to be here for him and give him love and attention. Since his last visit to the vets, he's only had one phantom attack, and I can see him having a lot more. The last one he had was when he was attempting to go upstairs, so I carried him to my bed and put him on it, and that solved the issue.

He's also now insured, but I would pay any amount of money to have him mended. It could've been a lot worse, at least we have him still, and you can't put a price on that. He's my mate as well as my cat, and he's getting back to his old self, declaring interest in everything I am eating, and sitting on the sofa with us again.

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