There I was sitting quietly and relaxing with a nice cup of tea, my husband had gone to the pub and I was enjoying some ‘me time’. My peace was shattered by my phone ringing, it was my husband.
He said, “I’ve just been talking to this man and he needs a home for his 2 cats, you’ll have them won’t you? Here talk to him.”
He passed the phone to the man who was very enthusiastic about me taking his cats on for him. I actually didn’t get chance to say much. The man was very grateful that l was prepared to have the cats, even though I had not at any point actually said l would have them. To be honest the last thing l thought l needed right then was another 2 cats. I already had 4 as well as my old Westie dog.
The next day the 2 cats were brought to me, the man explained that he was moving to South Africa and didn’t want to put the cats through the trauma of quarantine as they were almost 9 years old. Both cats were huge, very overweight, which l am sorting out now. Of course chaos reigned in the household for a few weeks, arguing cats etc.
The cats are brothers and are absolutely gorgeous and l fell in love with them immediately. Riga, the tabby one, is an outdoor cat mostly and a talker. He loves to have conversations with me, l have to play my part and mew back to him of course. Choma, the h is silent, is an indoor cat and rarely goes out. He is almost always close to me and puts his paw up to get me to fuss him, so cute.
The cats settled very well and very quickly, which surprised me. Then 3 days after they had arrived Riga got out and disappeared. I was heartbroken, we called and called him but to no avail. Over the weekend we went to the area he had come from and called him and asked a few people if they had seen him, one person said yes they had seen him which reassured me a little. A few days later we put up some posters and again asked people if they had seen him. We had a couple of phone calls from people who had seen him but of course as often as we went looking for him we could not find him.
I was reversing my car up my lane 3 weeks later and l saw a tabby cat at the end of the lane. At first I thought I was imagining things, then I realised… no it really is Riga. I got out of the car picked him up, abandoned my car, and took him home. I then went and retrieved my car. Riga was so very pleased to see me when I got back indoors and I was crying tears of happiness. I still find it amazing that a cat that had only been at my home for 3 days could then come back 3 weeks later. Cats truly are amazing creatures.
by Carolyn Warner
