Confessions of a Cat Sitter
Chris Pascoe is the author of A Cat Called Birmingham & You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough , and a columnist for various UK & international magazines .
He ’ s also a cat sitter …
Every now and then I meet people who totally put me to shame . Actually , I meet people like that every day , so I ’ ll rephrase that … every now and then I meet people in the cat world who amaze me – unsung heroes of felinity who , through sheer kindness , vastly improve the lives of any cat who ’ s lucky enough to saunter their way .
Meet Ian and Lynne Senator , Beaconsfield fosterers for that wonderful organisation Cats Protection ( CP ). I first met them a few years ago when asked to look after their SEVEN cats while they were away . They also have two CP pens in their garden . The fact they had to move home to actually fit two CP cages in their garden speaks volumes about them .
I ’ ve looked after many of the cats who ’ ve passed through these pens and I ’ m not sure what goes on in there , but I ’ ve lost count of those who ’ ve come in as stressed out , hissing , claw-swiping wrecks … and come out happy and purring pet-material . If I was the suspicious type , I ’ d say the Senator ’ s either have some kind of Star Trek-esque brainwashing machine hidden away in their garage , or the cats are replaced with exact replicas . Invasion of the Bodysnatchers … with cats .
Take one of their recent inmates – Mikey . Mikey was one of life ’ s unlucky cats – with a violent domestic past , an inability to trust people , and just to cap it all , FIV ( the feline equivalent of HIV ). There was no way this lad would ever find a home was there ? Of course he would – he ’ d just met the Senators . After two months of loving care , he was transformed into a wonderful , trusting , happy dream of a cat , but owners willing to take on FIV cats are few and far between . The Senators finally found one , almost a hundred miles away and across the sea on the Isle of Wight . The moment the prospective owner got through CP ’ s careful vetting processes ( no pun intended ) and agreed to take Mikey on , Ian drove him all the way there . Now , that ’ s dedication !
Ian described Mikey ’ s handover as something resembling an elicit arms deal . He drove off the ferry with Mikey in the back – now back in his carrier after managing to break out en-route and coat Ian ’ s newly valeted car in cat food ( typical feline gratitude ), then met his target at the port . The pair shook hands , Ian handed over the carrier , and received a handful of cash in return ( the CP adoption fee ). Both men looked shiftily around them , turned up their coat collars and disappeared into the foggy night . I may possibly have made up the shiftiness and coat collars bit . And the fog .
Skip to the present , and I ’ ve just been attending the Senator ’ s pens , accompanied as always by one of their own household cats , Silly . Silly earned her name early on and continues to live up to it every day ; one of the daftest but totally adorable cats I ’ ve ever met . Silly got up to her usual antics while I fed the pen-cats , climbing the wire doors in a desperate attempt to gain access , possibly the only cat in the world trying to break in to a CP cage .
One of the pen-mates tried to take my hand off for feeding her , but I know that , with a level of certainty I wouldn ’ t have anywhere else , in a few months time she ’ ll be as right as rain !
Now available on Amazon Confessions of a Catsitter : The Columns https :// www . amazon . co . uk / dp / B017NT7LGQ / ref = rdr _ kindle _ ext _ tmb
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