On the move again....

Some time last year I wrote about Adolfo, Kenzo and Zara - three very well travelled cats that live with Robert and Andrew. In case you didn't get to read it, they were rehomed from a rescue centre in Spain by Robert and Andrew while they were living there.

A couple of years later they returned to the UK, with cats in tow, and a couple of years after that, they were all off to South Africa. I went and stayed with them for a couple of weeks while Robert and Andrew had a holiday in one of the homes they retained in Spain, and got to know them all really well. That's probably the best cat sitting job I've ever had!!

Last time I wrote about them I said that they'd be on the move again, and Andrew added a comment to say that they'd have to all go and live in Spain for 6 months on the way back! South Africa isn't part of the pet passport scheme, so they would have to be in quarantine for 6 months, which isn't nice. There's no problem going direct from South Africa to Spain, and of course Spain is a member of the pet passport scheme, so after 6 months there, they can all come back to the UK. Keeping up???????

Well, Robert and Andrew are finally leaving South Africa at the beginning of April after their 4 years there - but the cats have got a head start on them, and are already on the way. I say on the way, because it's not a straightforward journey, and as I write I hear that they're only now approaching Barcelona.

They set off last week, 11th February, on a flight from Cape Town to Heathrow. The plan then was to be picked up by a wonderful company called Animal Couriers and taken by road to Southern Spain. Problems though with snow in Kent meant that they're return was delayed. But it was reported that they were doing well eating and sleeping in the quarantine centre.

Adolfo, Zara and Kenzo should be back in Andalucia later on tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, and will remain in a cattery there until Robert and Andrew finally arrive - at the moment, they're busy shutting up 4 years of life in South Africa, and it's much easier and less fraught for the cats to do that while they're not around. They're missing their "kids" very much, getting up in the mornings and not having them trotting in to see them..... But they'll all be together again very soon.

They are well travelled cats, although not as young as they were last time - I'm sure that, despite all the love and care that's gone into helping them to have a comfortable journey, this will still be a little stressful for them. So, I've been sending them Reiki every day since their journey started, to help them to be more relaxed and happy, and also for them to know that they've not been abandoned - they will be reunited again with their lovely dads very soon now.

No doubt I'll be writing again when they return to the UK in August; and perhaps when Robert and Andrew decide to move on again.............??

By the way, apologies for using the same photo as last time, but it's the only one I have of the three of them. If Robert or Andrew send me a new photo, I'll post it here. Oh, and I thought you'd also like to see this lovely penguin I captured (photographically speaking!) while I was in South Africa. Isn't he beautiful?

Stop Press!!! Just had a message from Robert they've all arrived safe and well. Click below on "Comments" to see what he has to say. Good news.

Our Fussy Eaters

How many times have you put a dish of food down, only for your cat to turn his nose up at it and walk away? And doesn't want it tomorrow or the next day? It can seem baffling that what was previously his favourite really doesn't interest him any more...

You keep leaving it out in the expectation that "if he's hungry he'll eat it." But that doesn't really happen with cats, does it? If they really don't want something, they don't want it.

It might actually be a favourite, but he doesn't want it ALL the time. The key to keeping a cat interested in his food is variety. And by that I don't mean different flavours of Felix.

Strays and ferals who have to hunt for their own food will eat pretty much what they can find or catch. But it's never the same thing. Even they will have some variety in their diet, although they might go a little longer between meals than the cats that live in our homes. Food raided from bins, left out for other animals, mice, voles, birds.......

I know that I'd go off my favourite food very quickly if I was fed it all the time, and our cats are no different.

When Bella came to live with me she was happy to eat dry food all the time, and didn't complain. When she had her accident and went to hospital, she was very poorly and didn't want to eat at all. The vets tried to tempt her appetite and found that she loved Sheba. So that got added to her diet when she got home, as, all of a sudden, dry food wasn't good enough any more.

After a little while though, that bored her, so off I went to find something else. We must have tried just about everything there is, and finally have settled into a diverse range of food that she likes. Some days she'll only want dry food and leave the wet food, and other days she'll only eat the wet food. She's a bit of a grazer, so the wet food can get a little unappetising after a couple of hours. She only eats little bits at a time, and has never eaten big meals.

She likes Sheba, Gourmet and Felix, but only a couple of flavours of each, and only certain varieties (ie in jelly, gravy, etc). But that's the key with her - the makes are different as are the textures and tastes. And that's the way to keep them all interested - vary the makes as well as the flavours.

The same happens when I go to feed cats too; although they're tricky characters, and there's more to it than that. Sometimes I might be told that Henry or Phoebe might leave lots of food, as that's their habit - yet when I go to feed them it all gets eaten! And the reverse..... they'll eat hardly anything, even though they must be very hungry. I'm told that even Bella eats all her food when I'm away, and that just doesn't happen otherwise!!

Those that eat all their food - and quite quickly too - are just tuning into their survival instincts. Something tells them that if their family are away there won't be any food, so whenever there is, they're sure to eat it, just in case... When they don't eat much, it could be that they're feeling anxious while their family are away, which takes away their appetite. But mostly I find that they're just bored with what they have to eat.

But I'm always prepared, and keep emergency cat food in my bag. If it's been a few days, I'll try them with something different. And that usually solves it - just give them something new and exciting (which it is to them), and their appetite comes straight back!! All I do is swap one of mine for one of theirs, and one day another cat might like that instead!

A little word of caution....... If you're wanting to try out different makes and flavours, do it gradually, and perhaps mix it in with their regular food at first - our cats' stomachs can sometimes be easy to upset!!

Busy Birds

Just a quick post, this.

Earlier this morning Bella and I were sitting in the kitchen by the patio doors watching all the activity in the garden. No doubt we were watching for different reasons though!

The birds were having a great time, lots of chasing each other, lots of showing off. There was a gorgeous male blackbird and his mate - a beautiful tawny brown with a huge belly. As usual the starlings were there in their numbers, squabbling with each other, and eating all the bird cakes I'd made for them.

I never know whether the small brown ones are sparrows or dunnocks - we've been told that sparrows are in decline and that they're more likely to be dunnocks. Whichever, they were all being cheeky and daring. The magpies have become more cautious of late. They never used to care who was around, but if they come onto the lawn to eat and a blackbird joins them, off they fly! Then there's the daft pigeons who come and sit on the gutter, watching all the goings on - eventually deciding to come to land. But so difficult for them - they're really not built for it are they?

And of course all the lovely blue tits with their pretty songs, flitting all over the place, sitting on the washing line, and pecking away at everything. But I mustn't forget the robin. There's always one, and there's only ever one on its own. They look sweet but get a bad press; they're reckoned to be bullies, scaring off the other birds. Well, this robin doesn't. He just mingles with them all, going about his business, gets on with everyone - well at least no-one is put off by him.

Then I realised my peppermint tea had gone cold, I really did need to get showered and on with my day......... If I didn't have to earn a living, I could spend all my day just watching this amazing theatre.

Water, water everywhere

Like most people, I tend to put Bella's food and water close together. Most of the cats I look after have this arrangement too, and some even have those double bowls where you put the food in one side and the water in the other. Always a bit tricky when it comes to emptying and cleaning I find - either the remaining food or the water goes everywhere!!

It must have been a couple of years ago now, that I was sitting watching tv, with a glass of water on the floor by my feet. Bella came along, sniffed it and had a drink. Then this started to happen all the time. Even if the water was quite low she'd manage to get her face squeezed in and drink! Can't have been comfortable. So, I thought, well she likes to drink out of glasses, so I'll swap her drinking bowl for a glass. But she still came along and drunk mine!!

Not long after, I went to meet a new client for the first time, and they told me, almost apologetically that their cat likes to drink out of a glass! They thought it was only their cat, so I had to tell them that Bella also does that. And they weren't the only ones either. More and more new customers were telling me the same thing!

If you've got a cat, and they go outside, you'll probably notice that they'll drink out of absolutely anything, and it's frequently quite disgusting! I've always got a couple of water bowls in the garden for Bella, as during the nicer months she'll spend most of her time outdoors - I'd rather encourage her to drink cleaner, fresher water than whatever she finds in a mucky puddle! I realise that it's probably no problem to them at all, after all if they lived wild that's exactly what they'd have to do. But still....... And then there are all the cats that like to drink running water from the tap, in the bath, or the toilet!

She went off drinking glasses after a while, so we returned to water bowls. But even then she'd have her food and want to go outside for a drink. Even when it was freezing cold - there was one morning we'd woken up to a heavy frost and the water outside had frozen. But she was still pawing it, trying to get it to behave! I watched for a bit, but then decided I ought to be kind and replenish it with running water. Happy cat drunk water, then hopped back indoors to the warm.

Then one day, I read an article that told me that cats don't like to eat and drink in the same place. I thought about this, and it made sense. Going way back, cats are desert animals, and when they caught something and ate it, there wouldn't naturally be water close by. So they've grown up, all through the thousands of generations, not expecting to eat and drink in the same place. It's not really that they don't like to, it's just that to them it's not normal.

Then I kicked myself!! How stupid had I been? Bella didn't particularly want to drink out of a glass, she just found it more normal to drink somewhere other than her food was. The signs were there, but I'd completely misinterpreted them. So now, she has water bowls everywhere, and happily drinks from them when she feels like it. She still has a water bowl by her food - but hardly touches it. Some habits are hard (for me) to break!

Once I realised, I communicated with her intuitively, to see why she'd not told me before. Well, in typical cat style, she told me she had, and repeatedly, I just wasn't listening. And she was right.........