Elfke - May 2007-March 2008

Little Elfke didn't make it through her illness. She wasn't even a year old yet, but we were very happy to have known her as long as we did.



When we first brought her home, she was a frightened little kitten who had been living under the floorboards of a factory here in Gent. She was incredibly wild and very frightened. She had been brought to the Poezenboot (cat charity boat) on a day I was volunteering there, and in a few short hours, she had escaped from her holding cage 3 times and bit 3 different people. Even though she was just a tiny thing, she had jaws of steel. For some reason I was able to calm her down, and she went to sleep in my lap. I knew then that I had to bring her home with me. When she got to the house, she was terrified again, because suddenly she was in a strange new place with lots of quirky cats. She hid everywhere she could, even inside the kitchen wall at one point, but finally stationed herself under the couch.

Our big "Buddha Cat", Bram, who had lived on the streets until he was about 6 months old, took her under his wing and became a surrogate father for her. He was the only one who could coax her out from under the couch (where he had hid too when he was just a kid), and bit by bit he helped her to build her confidence.





Pretty soon, with his help, she stopped being quite so wild, and became a regular member of the family.



She was a sweet little girl and we will all miss her a lot.