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Wednesday, 13 November 2024

A New Cat

For a long time now my middle daughter has been on about getting an inside cat. 

We've had an outdoor, feral cat, for about 4 years now. I feed it daily, but generally that's our only interaction with it. It was given to us by someone having to leave their farm, and seems to do the job of keeping on top of some of the mice and rats around the place. 

I've never had a cat as a proper pet before, but I wasn't against the idea, I mentioned it to a friend and she said she knew just the person. 

We got put in contact with the lady that helped us with the rescue hedgehog from earlier in the summer. they had a cat that had come in with a broken leg, it was still quite young, but very calm and friendly. Apparently it had come from a house that had 30 cats, but they couldn't afford to put it's leg right. The Vets did the job for free but decided that maybe it needed to be rehomed. 

So we visited this cat in the vets and all the children fell in love with it. He's very friendly, and the children enjoyed interacting with him. As his leg is pretty much better now we've got him back at home and he's settled in pretty much straight away. He won't be allowed outside for a good while yet and due to his leg we're trying to keep him in rooms he won't jump too high in. 

Show's how not used to cats that I am because I just can't get over how lazy he is! He does very little, considering I'm in and out the house all day. He does play with the children, and has his mad moments, but most of the time he's happy to lie around.  

 I love how much the children love him already and they've split up the jobs associated with him, so far I've only picked up one poo out the litter box, they've done all the rest! 

And his name? Varjak Paw. After the book about the Kung Fu cat with the same name (a favourite in this house), I'm sure he'll have lots of adventures on the smallholding. 

14 comments:

  1. Will you install a cat flap for him so he can roam around the smallholding and return to the dwelling? I think we have seven cats?🤔

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    1. Yeah, I think we will do that next year. I want him to battle the mice a bit.

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  2. Lucky rescue cat, they are the best, cuddles from Poppy and Val

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  3. My eldest wanted a cat as a pet in the worst way but we've resisted thus far. Our biggest hangup is that we like to take long vacations on occasion and really have nobody around in our lives who would gladly volunteer to look after the critter in our absence. Most around here pay boarding placed to house their pets but judging from frantic social media posts I have read, they are often filled to capacity and many people seem like their pets our miserable at them. If I had close family, I would probably definitely get a pet again as I grew up with them as a child and always enjoyed their antics.

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    1. We're lucky here as have good neighbours we can rely on. It makes a difference to what we plan and can do.

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  4. How lovely Kev, the children will really enjoy having a pet. My daughter has a house cat, if he goes outside in the garden he's always on a long lead. I think she simply doesn't want him to have fights etc with other cats, he seems very happy indoors and gets up to all sorts of antics!

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    1. I always grew up with dogs, but I think this will work well here. Not sure how he will get on with our feral farm cat, but will have to see!

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  5. A cat is a great pet for children, we will have our kitten just after Christmas, can't wait, ours is a girl grey like yours.

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    1. Ah lovely! The children were so excited about this one. It's been nice as they're very easy to look after really.

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  6. Kev, we have had various pets for most of my life. They provide a great deal of comfort and entertainment. They are also examples of unconditional love (or for cats, to be fair, conditional love at times).

    And rescue animals always seem to know they were rescued.

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    1. This one has such a nice temperament about him, very calm with the children, just very chilled out really. I always had a lot of pets growing up, so maybe it's something I should have done sooner, but life has been busy!

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  7. Not safe here for a cat but I do miss having one - do you think moving again so I can have a cat is a good idea?

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    1. haha, maybe a little extreme to move house for one. I've been enjoy the cats company though.

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