There were so many puppies and kittens, of all colours imaginable. I’d guess there were approximately 50 kittens there in total, snuggling in boxes, on tables, in arms…

We said hello to a some, picked up and cuddled a few…but how can you choose from so many?

Then I saw one…a special one…one already being cuddled by someone else!…

…I bided my time…waited until that tiny, pale fur-ball was returned to the table…then I swooped in!

As soon as I picked that kitten up the decision was made. It crawled to my shoulder and sat there like a purring parrot, completely content. I think we bonded instantly – a year on and his favourite pillow is still my left shoulder!

I wanted to get a companion for the little guy so we went back to the tables to find him a friend. But every kitten that we looked at was female, and I really wanted to get him a brother.

…And so we found Spock (eventually), white socks, huge ears, bright eyes, an obvious rascal! 

We signed some papers and set off (kittens held tightly) to find something to transport them home in. We’d assumed that there would be ‘stuff’ at the fair. Some stalls with pet supplies, at least. But it was just a group of shelter volunteers with piles of kittens and puppies. They’d set themselves up in a pick-nick area in a small road-side park. I thought it was a great idea. Getting the animals out of the shelter and into the city centre where passers-by could be tempted (hopefully) into going home with a new friend.

So, across the road we prevailed upon a kindly waitress to let us have a couple of cardboard boxes from a Temaki restaraunt. Zé and Spock came home with us in noodle boxes!

It had been hard to pick just two. Each one I put back tugged at my heart. It’s lucky that I found Zé so early on. If I’d chosen a female cat we’d have been there all day trying to pick out her companion. As it was, Spock was one of the only males we could find.

We could never have known, though, just how brilliantly they would both turn out. We’d picked out two of the funniest, cuddliest, most companionable cats we could have wished for. They still make us laugh every day:

Zé; the cat who bleats like a goat and has to be escorted to his food bowl (he insists! Well, who wants to go to dinner alone?).
Spock; a great conversationalist, chatty, smart and so, so cheeky!

Happy Adoption Day, Boys!

Sometimes my work area gets a little crowded!

Zé is great company when I’m working at home. I have to stop work 2 or 3 times for ‘full’ cuddles, but other than that he’s usually happy to just settle down near me and snooze.

But sometimes Spock and Zé (in fact, Zé especially) both seem to have a knack of knowing exactly where to sit in order to cause the most disruption to my current task.

If I get up for a break then I lose my chair. If I want a drink, Zé parks himself in front of the fridge door. If I want to do some ironing…ok, so no one wants to do ironing, but if I did, this is what I would find…

And it’s not just me. They consider my husband fair game when he’s working from home too. Marcelo actually has the most desired chair in the house (most desired by cats, that is – well, ok, so I quite like to use it too!), so whenever he moves away, no matter how small the distance, he is effectively surrendering his seat to whichever of the beasts is nearest.

What happens if he doesn’t move? Spock is happy to settle for the next best thing!

I have to plan what I am making early in the day (before the cats have settled for their morning snooze) because if I want to get any sewing supplies from my main stash (cleverly kept in a big squishy cat-hammock-like suit case) I ALWAYS have to wait.

This is Zé’s (current) absolute favourite place of all time!

(I think he’s got too big for his bathroom basin bed now)

Allure: The quality of being powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating.

Nonchalance: A casual lack of concern.

Yep, that sounds like a cat!

Hello everyone. I’m sorry I have not updated the blog for so long, but I have some news now.

Firstly (and most importantly), Spock and Zé are still with us. After the first couple of weeks of looking for a new home for them things sort of trailed off. We had a couple of near-misses – people who were going to take them, but who then couldn’t (one lady was all set to have them until one of her children said that she didn’t want to have any animals around the grandchild).

But anyway, now that they have been neutered have had all of their injections, Spock and Zé are both spending a lot of time outdoors. They love mooching around the condo’s gardens and pathways. There’s a huge open, grassy space by our building (it was going to be the spot for another building but the developers apparently changed their minds) and they play there, chasing butterflies and pouncing on jumping bugs.

I’d noticed that Marcelo is getting more and more chatty with them. When they come home, full of excitement from their day at ‘work’, they like to tell us about it. Meowing and charging at our legs with their tails held high, purring at full volume and demanding our attention! One day Marcelo just said, simply, “It’s going to be really hard to let them go.” So we talked it over again and have decided to wait a little. We are going to see how his allergies and asthma are now that the cats are not shedding their dander in here 24 hours a day.

If we have another crisis, another hospital trip, then we will have to go back to plan ‘A’, but we both feel that this new situation is worth testing. The cats are not under his nose all the time now…will this be enough to make a difference? It’s certainly possible, so we will see how it goes.

Finally, I am sorry that I have not been keeping up to date with my friends’ blogs. At first it was just too hard to log into here or to read things that came through on my ‘Bewhiskered’ email account. Then, there were just so many unread updates that I was swamped and didn’t know where to start.

I have tonnes of pictures to upload here since my last posts so I’ll be logging on much more regularly again. I hope to be able to catch up with you all a bit. I’m working on getting my little craft business going so I can’t be doing full-time blogging like I used to, but I would like to get back on the scene.

I had a message today asking for an update. I’ve been a little scared to post since I made the announcement last week – I know a lot of people were unhappy with our decision but I will say again: we are NOT dumping the cats – we are looking for a good, loving, safe home(s) for them.

So, the update: We’re still looking new parents for the boys at the moment. We are trying hard to keep them together. Separating them will be a last resort. We’ve had a couple of possibles that, unfortunately, fell through, but we are still looking.

In order to broaden their horizons and address their ‘scaredy cat-ness’ we’ve started to let the boys roam around outside everyday. I really want to get them a little more used to people, kids, other animals and the big wide world before they are thrust into a new and unfamiliar place. And well…it’s amazing. Zé is a different cat now! He’s got so much more confidence and when he gets outside he’s a proper little tiger. I’ve never subscribed to the cats-should-be-kept-indoors thing (it’s just not how we view cats in Britain, nor in Brazil from what I’ve seen) and seeing the boys just wandering around the apartment all day, every day was becoming quite sad. They’d started jumping from the windows more frequently in their efforts to go out and explore, so now I just let them out of the front door…which is much more sensible.

A few days ago, one of our neighbours asked me if Spock was pregnant! Hahaha. So, I think this newly discovered out-door exercise may be just what he needs.

They are both so happy outside: sniffing things, jumping at the butterflies, hiding in the bushes and brushing noses with the local kitties. To me this is how cats should be. I’m really hoping that their new people have a house (not a piddly little apartment like ours) so that they are free to come and go as they like, sleep in the sun, amble through the undergrowth and spend all day munching on grasshoppers and ‘roaches (both particular delicacies as far as the lads are concerned!)

Thank you again for the messages. They are really helping to buoy my spirits.

It breaks my heart to tell you all this, but I’m afraid that Spock and Zé are going to be leaving us soon. I will tell you a little of the events leading up to this decision so that you can understand why it has to be:

As my regular readers will know, Marcelo (my husband) is allergic to cats. He’s also an asthmatic and has been for his whole life. He tried to do something incredibly wonderful for me, something self-sacrificing and done purely out of his love for me…he tried to live with cats.

We have tried everything to manage his allergies: herbal remedies, homoeopathic ones, drug store anti-allergens, prescription meds…

But on Saturday we wound up at the local hospital for several hours, with Marcelo wearing an oxygen mask and being injected and tested by the lung specialist. She had one solution, and one recommendation only…

No cats!

Heartbreaking as it is, what choice do we have? I will miss the boys more than I can put into words, but how can I sit and watch my husband suffer? I can’t. 

So we have started looking for new homes for them. We’ve called a friend who we know would love to have a 2nd cat. She knows someone who is also a great animal lover and who is also thinking of adding to her crew. I’d love for them to stay together as they are good friends, but if they do have to be split up it’s best that they go to cat-people who will give them the support and affection they’ll need to properly re-adjust.

My brain is finding all this quite hard to cope with. One minute I’m thinking logically and sensibly (like now, writing the above), the next I feel like screaming and hiding in a corner with my boys – holding onto them so tightly that no one can take them away (like now, writing that last sentence).

But there is nothing I can do, no magical cure, no one to complain to, no one to change the rules…perhaps this is why so many people believe in God(s). To have someone to blame when there is no one to blame…? Perhaps…I don’t know.

So, we’re going to make the most of the time we have left with them; lots of cuddles, lots of playing and lots of love.

I don’t know what will happen to this blog. I’d like to keep it going in some form. I still have loads of photos that I haven’t posted yet and also, I made a decision yesterday to find a cat shelter and volunteer. I don’t think I can live a life completely un-bewhiskered. Maybe I can use this blog to tell stories about the cats I meet there, or as my mum suggested, tell more stories about the cats from my past (I think that would be nice). I will definitely keep up to date with all of your blogs. Especially you, Anita. I will watch and share in your progress/life/love of Bugs with much interest and enjoyment.

I’m not sure how to end this post, but there is a line from a song that keeps running through my head. The truth is, I have known (deep down) that this day was coming. I’ve known it for a long time. We both have. But we’d been desperately hoping that it wouldn’t.

‘Didn’t I know how it would go? And if I knew from the start…
…why am I falling apart?’

But more than that. There was a song that used to destroy me after I lost my first cat, my big sister, Big Pommer. I find that that song is haunting me again now.

(I hope the quality is ok – I can’t bring myself to listen to it to check. Just reading the lyrics below the video is enough…)

I’m so sorry, my boys. If this could end any other way you know I’d make it happen.

This post is dedicated, with great love, to my husband. Thank you for trying.

What's that in the background?

Last night we brought all of our pillows into the living room to make an extra comfy nest (we were going to watch one of the 4+ hour extended Lord of the Rings films). This was Spock’s reaction to the pillow pile.