New Family Members!

Before I moved, I lived in the middle of nowhere, and adopted a stray middle-of-nowhere kind of cat. Semi feral, he happily ate all the food I provided and stole as much heat in the house as he could. We loved him to bits :) Our new house is pretty urban, surrounded by other houses, with main roads less than half a mile away. Sadly, it was not the kind of place Cat would enjoy or thrive in and with a lot of tears, we gave ownership of him to a couple in the lane who promised to look after him. He's obviously happy to be able to stay put on the same cushy deal that we offered him, and in typical feline fashion, he misses us...not.

Today we took a trip to the Cats Protection League rehoming centre to see if the void could be filled. We looked at cats and kittens, some miaowing for a fuss which we duly gave them. All shapes and colours - a kitty for every occasion! And it was great, but each cuddle was definitely a "I'm cuddling a cat in a rehoming centre" moment.

Then the staff led us to a small building with an outside run a little distance away from the other cattery buildings. No individual or dual compartments here - just one big living area for the four cats that they currently have that qualify. Immediately, a cat invited itself into my arms and butted my chin with his head. In that instant, he felt like he was mine. DS occupied himself with a large tabby in the corner, and we were both smitten - we'd very much like these kitties to adopt us, please. Nobby (what a name!) is very tiny, black and white, 12 years old(!)...bear with me, it gets better...only has one eye, his ears have bits missing and has a dribbling habit. Benji, DS's playmate is a tabby at the spritely age of 8. Both are fiv positive, the feline equivalent of hiv. They will always be indoors cats because of the fiv. Between them, they've spent 18 months in the centre, overlooked.

They are beautiful boys, Benji is a little shy but Nobby will help him settle in. I can't see Nobby having any problems at all. I've never known such a friendly, trusting cat.

It was only after I came home, having arranged for the home visit on Monday, that their ages really played any part. I know they're both middle aged, but there is no reason why they shouldn't live until they're 16 or more. Not as long as we'd like, obviously, but we all have plenty of time to enjoy the time we have :)

Once the home visit is over, we can bring them home when we like - it'll be better to wait until the weekend, so I'm not flitting off to work, but I'm not sure I can wait that long!

Squeee!