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Anyway Ceri had come to see both Honey and I (although it was Honey whom Ceri had originally made enquiries about).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