After a spell with the Animal Welfare League, Amy found a new home with Crows PR consultant Jill Moss, who writes ....
It takes a pretty special cat to run the gauntlet in the middle of an AFL match.
I was curled up on the couch at home when Amy decided to venture across the oval in the third quarter of the NAB semi final and I remember feeling sick in the stomach. I couldn't bear to watch as the red coats chased her down.
Monday morning when I arrived at work my phone and email was running hot with friends, family and complete strangers demanding to know about the welfare of the "footy cat".
When Crows All Australian defender Ben Rutten and I drove out to the Animal Welfare League to meet Amy I was blown away by how affectionate and unfazed she was by her instant stardom. It was then that the nagging feelings started. I wanted her!! And wasn't it fate? Here I was, PR Consultant to the Crows, and a cat had chosen to run onto the field during a Crows match. And not just any cat but a female tortoises shell! Our female torty Bonnie had died two years ago and I had been nagging my husband Jason to let me get another cat.
We already had Toby, a nine-year-old tabby ball of fluff, who has been on his own for the past two years since his friend Bonnie died. Dear Bonnie was a beautiful green eyed tortoiseshell and Toby missed her dearly. With Bonnie gone, and the birth of our first child Jacob, who is now 17 months and terrorises Toby daily, I had felt for some time that Toby was in need of some feline company.
So after some arm twisting my husband Jason relented, and once Amy had a clean bill of health, she joined our family. I dreamt I renamed her Walnut but in reality I couldn't change the name Animal Welfare gave her - it was synonymous with who she is.
I will never forget that first evening we brought her into the house and she jumped straight on the sofa and curled up in a ball purring. She knew exactly what she was up to - a poor little domestic cat that had somehow been abandoned - reacquainting herself with one of life's luxuries - a sofa.
It has not been plain sailing. I always thought it would be easier to introduce two adult cats, rather than an adult and a kitten - I have since dismissed that myth. With us Amy is an incredibly affectionate, sooky and chatty cat who likes nothing better than a human lap to sleep on and plenty of cuddles.
But enter Toby and she turns into the alter ego she needed to survive living at the stadium. Hissing and yowling she is a frightening sight.
It has been seven weeks now and their relationship is slowly improving. In fact today I caught them running around the front garden together. But it is not at the point where she can stay in the house when we are not around.
So she has the luxury of living in Jason's office where she sleeps on his laptop bag by day and her exercise is rolling around at his feet. She has very much bonded with Jason, and he with her, but her flatulence is constant source of frustration and forces Jason out of his office at the most inconvenient times. Over time her health issues have slowly settled down - I just don't think her waif like body knew how to digest all the can food after she had survived on scraps at the stadium for who knows how long. I have never seen a cat eat so much!!! She has certainly plumped up and has a lovely healthy winter coat which our son Jacob likes to "pat pat". Amy has quickly worked out that toddlers are to be avoided at all costs and she makes sure she is never around when young Jacob is on the prowl.
So the family dynamics are a daily battle, cat v cat, cat v toddler, cat v husband but we wouldn't have it any other way.
Jill Moss
