Banjo, a teeny female calico, wandered into Bantry bikeshop at the age of around 5 weeks in July 2007.  All four paws had bad burn damage, two pads peeling off completely, and her hind leg was burnt to the bone.  We figured she'd got the injuries from travelling on a car engine.  She was terrified of people and from that wariness and her general initial behaviour and skinny, skanky appearance we're pretty sure she probably hadn't been handled or looked after until she came to us.  Feargal, a friend of mine and one of Book STEPs' best volunteers, works in the bike shop and brought Banjo to me same day, safely wrapped up in the panier of his bicycle.

For some reason we thought Banjo was a boy for the first month of her stay here - guess we didn't check properly and she is very tomboyish.  Then I read up a bit on calicos and found that males are very unusual. Figured I better double check and whadyaknow but we got us a wee girl calico.  Hopefully she isn't psychologically scarred by the misgendering experience...

Banjo adores every adult cat in the house and rushes up to them, pressing against them and moving her face under theirs, asking for a clean and nuzzle.  Sweetest thing to see, and not always attention the adults are looking for.  She remains nervous of strangers but is one of the most affectionate kittens once she gets to know you. She pushes her solid little body into you and purrs with delight.  She loves her face, head and neck being stroked and is an under the covers kitten, loving coorie holes and cosy spaces.  You'll find she'll run away from you and the best way to approach her is to grab her, pick her up and rub her face.  She'll almost instantly start purring and relax into you.  Her nervousness is almost definitely a result of the combination of her feral beginnings and the repeated torture we had to put her through to heal her wounds when she first arrived.

She is very food oriented, going through quite a tubby stage in her kittenhood as she scoffed everything in sight. And although she's friendly with the other kittens she growing more independent as she grows up.  At the same time, with the introduction of two wee 9 week old kittens recently she's been showing caregiving tendencies and loves playing and looking after them.  She's a real outdoors lover in the summer (sensibly staying indoors by a heat source in the winter), another indicator that she was probably feral before her visit to the bike shop.  I think she'd be happiest as the sole cat in a household or with an older female she can adopt as surrogate mum.  Though she'd also be fine with a young kitten.  She has a tendency to sometimes use her claws in play and this, combined with her timidity, suggests to me she'd be best in a childfree household.  Though I could be wrong.