The first night - Part 5

After a very busy day of exploring every corner of Ceri's flat,  Ceri indicated to me it was bedtime. She pointed at my bed and pointed at me and then she pointed at her bed and pointed at her I think she said something like "Let's get things clear from the start, Cookie sleeps in Cookie's bed, Ceri sleeps in Ceri's bed..."

I understood but I just didn't think this was at all fair, I mean Ceri had adopted me to be her friend, surely there was room for a little feline friend at the bottom of her bed. I jumped on her bed and settled down to try and communicate all this to her but I was very quickly nudged off and chased back in the lounge.

Admittedly she had bought me a nice bed and she'd even made a little den for it to go in because she'd noticed I'd liked hiding, but I was a bit miffed to have to sleep in the lounge all alone and showed this in a bit of a naughty way, I meowed and scratched the door for quite a long time and heard a few sharp words from Ceri ... I think she thinks she owns me sometimes! 


I was still excited by all the new stuff around me, how on earth could Ceri expect me to sleep?! I explored a bit more after Ceri had gone to bed. I found a jigsaw hiding under the sofa, I pulled out some of the pieces with my paws, I chewed a few, but I didn't like them at all, they tasted of cardboard so I spat them right out out again. Ceri didn't look too impressed when she saw the result in the morning, but for a stubborn ginger, she got off very lightly! 


I restrained myself from any more antics and eventually the day's excitement caught up on me and I curled up in my new bed in my den and fell fast asleep...

All Change - Part 4

I waited and waited in my pen, wondering if Ceri would decide to pick me, the weather got colder and I got tired of feeling like I didn't belong. Honey, next door was not speaking to me. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings, I was just worried that if she kept being snooty and retreating nobody would ever want her.

It was on the Saturday that I saw Molly coming up to me with a carrier box.
"oh no" I thought to myself, that usually means one thing, a visit to the vets for needles, my tail dropped, a shiver went down my spine and very reluctantly I was placed into the carrier and into the car. I felt a bit sad.

We stopped after about five minutes and I Molly took me out of the car, I held my breath and peered through the metal bars and to my surprise we weren't at the Vets at all, we were in a sort of Courtyard with flats surrounding us. Molly pressed the buzzer of one of them, the door opened and then we went through another door and I was let out.

I saw Ceri in the corner of my eye, but I didn't acknowledge her because the most frightening thought went through my mind: "What if Ceri was a vet in disguise?". I decided to check out this place I'd been placed in first. I tried to get behind the sofa first, I needed to be sure I had somewhere to hide in case my worst nightmare came true and I really had come to live with a Vet who would stick big huge needles in me every day and poke me.

I tried to get behind the sofa, but I couldn't because it was too close to the wall. I tried getting under the bookcase but my bottom was too big to fit! 

I wandered into another room, a room which looked like a kitchen, I spotted a basket which smelt of cat food and tried to nudge it out, but my claws weren't quite strong enough. From a quick glance I noticed Ceri was signing some papers for Molly, I wondered if these could be the adoption papers. I wanted to get excited but didn't dare. I first had to make absolutely sure this was my new home and not a Vets.


Molly gave Ceri some of my food to give to me later, she said goodbye and left. I still didn't go anywhere near Ceri, I wanted to check out this place I'd been left in first. I found a couple of bowls on the kitchen floor, one  empty and one filled with water. Humans don't eat or drink on the floor I thought, maybe they are for me. 

Then I found a cat toilet, it's easy to know when a toilet is for a cat, it doesn't make any funny water noises like human ones do. Then I went back in the lounge and found a cat bed, again. It's easy to know when a bed is for a cat, it is small and on the floor and has no duvet, but that's okay as us cats have fur, which is a bit like having a duvet around you all day and night. That's why humans like us to sit on their laps, cos we look far cooler than tartan blankets!

Hmm... so, so far so good, maybe this was a real home after all. I looked at Ceri, who was trying to hard to look okay about my ignoring her, she was muttering at the TV which was showing men fighting over a funny shaped ball.

I eventually  relaxed and jumped on her lap and gave her a big kiss to say sorry for suspecting she might be a Vet.  She looked at me a bit surprised at first, I don't think she's ever met a cat that gave kisses before but then she smiled and laughed and told me I was very very cute. She smoothed my fur as I snuggled in close to her ... and then after a few minutes of staring at the TV ... she did something that surprised me. She shouted ... "WALES!"...

Unminced Meows - Part 3

As I said earlier, I was very cross and embarrassed at Honey's behaviour towards Ceri and had a few sharp words for her, in her own interest of course. I was just concerned she'll never have a home if she behaves like that all the time."Actually it was all that curly air that really unnerved me," Honey confessed. 

"Humans with curly hair usually have a wild streak within which makes them virtually untameable."

She then tossed her head and lifted her nose as if there was a pungent stench in the air.

"You know I bet she is the sort who'd give out an annoying giggle every time I went anywhere near her. she'd probably never have my tea ready to schedule and I bet too she's the sort who'd move my bowls around to different places in the kitchen and cause confusion - yes, untamable I say untamable! Mark my words young Fudge... (Fudge was my name before I was given the name Cookie, but that's a story for another time) ... Your life would becomr chaos if you went home with that Ceri and there's no way out you know!" She said, with her stuffy little nose still in the air as she strutted along back into her den.

"One cat's definition of chaos is another cat's definition of fun" I muttered under my breath, it was no use arguing though, besides getting worked up about stuff isn't me ... The "Chilled out dude" they called me in my previous home. No, Honeys silly behaviour was her business.

As for me I found a quiet sunny spot in the corner of the pen. I lay down and gazed up at the white fluffy clouds floating slowly in the sky. I dreamt of a new life with lots of cuddles and fun.

The Visit - Part 2

"Honey!" I called, in a kind of loud whispering voice.
"Honey, I think we may be having visitors."

"Can't you see I'm eating my tea?" she retorted in her typical posh manner which I always found rather intimidating to say the least.

"Anyway what's so special about having visitors? People come and people go, that's the way the world is. Now you stop getting all excited with those silly dreams of yours of someone coming to take you home." 

Honey returned to her bowl and tutted "Would you believe it, one piece of my tea missed the bowl. These humans often do this and then expect us to eat off the floor, disgusting, don't they realise we cats have our pride?! I'd like to see them eating off the floor! Goodness me... and I asked for chicken not turkey, far too dry"

Well, I just could not understand how Honey could stay so engrossed in her tea with the prospect of visitors coming to see us and possibly take one of us home. I was far too excited to eat a thing! I waited and watched and eventually a car parked up. Yes! I was right! Sitting upright on my perch in the pen, peering through he mesh I saw them walk across the garden, them being, Ceri along with her friend.  They both looked very friendly. It's hard to explain what makes me sense when people are friendly. It's this feeling I get inside me when I'm sure somebody is pleased to see me, my tail goes right up in the air and sways ever so slightly, I can't help it, it just does it. Perhaps it's the same when human's smile, they can't help it when they are happy.

Anyway Ceri had come to see both Honey and I (although it was Honey whom Ceri had originally made enquiries about). Molly opened the gate. Ceri came in, I sat looking at her, trying to get her attention. Meanwhile Honey, being Honey was in her bed straightening out the fur on her tail.

They opened Honey's pen and called her to come out and say hello to the nice visitors, but Honey took one look at Ceri and ran back into her den. I felt rather embarrassed to be honest, I mean all Ceri did was wobble slightly, if Honey had only just taken the time to wait she would have realised that Ceri often wobbles a bit and it is nothing to be scared about at all, in fact I thought it made Ceri look a bit more, well interesting, a cats life can get far too mundane and predictable at times. People stroke you the same way all the time and talk to you the same way, it's nice to meet interesting people, especially the friendly sort. At the end of the day don't we all wobble a bit sometimes?! Yes that was it for me as far as Honey was concerned, facts had to be faced up to ... Honey was indeed, a "scaredy" cat, and I told her so later without mincing any 'meows'.

Anyway, where was I, oh yes, when the door of my pen was opened I wasted no time, I made sure Ceri and her friend were given a proper feline welcome. Ceri crouched down to my level to talk to me, we cats always appreciate that and call me old fashioned, but being a male feline and all that I prefer to initiate a greeting with a human, especially with ladies, so I gently nudged my head into Ceri's shin to say hello and she gave me a lovely gentle tickle between the ears. I warmed to her quickly and purred. She stayed for a little while, voices sounded upbeat but then sadly they said goodbye and gates were closed. 

I jumped back on my perch, tilted my head ever so slightly and watched them walk across the garden and then drive away.  Aww, I was hoping I could go with them, that I'd be chosen 

Would I ever see Ceri again I wondered?....

The Inbetween Time - Part 1

I was living in a pen, in the garden of my foster carer called Molly from the Cats Protection League. The Cats Protection League look after unwanted cats and find them new loving homes.

I can't really say I was unwanted though, although it did feel like that at the time, I mean when I had to leave my old home. What happened was I lived with a young family and we were all very happy until ... they got some dogs. To cut a long story short, the dogs did not like me and I did not like them either, so my owners decided I needed to live somewhere else, somewhere where I could be happy.

I was with my foster carers for a long time, they looked after me well but I knew they were trying hard to find me a permanent home, where I could be loved for the rest of my life.

So here I waited. I lived in a pen next door to Honey. Honey was a little Tortie cat, she was very pretty, but could be a little moody sometimes. I would push my nose up against the fence to talk to her, sometimes she would grace me with a "meow" but at other times she would look at me rather indignantly and retreat back into her den. Maybe she didn't like ginger cats, perhaps she was a little shy or maybe she just genuinely preferred her own company. She never told me much of her story so it was all a bit hard to understand.

Meanwhile I waited and waited and I waited and waited, until one day, while feeding us our tea, Molly spoke to Honey and I very intentionally. I couldn't quite catch what she was saying, (humans don't meow very well and when they try it all  comes out in gobbledygook), but I sensed in Molly's voice an air of expectation and an encouragement to be on our best behaviour as if we were going to have visitors