Two days ago, after a decade of prevarication, permission denial, and debates about being in a different country, Emma and I finally became the proud owners of two playful seven month-old cats which were purchased from the local RSPCA shelter. Ever since we have been together both Emma and I have wanted to own cats but from initially being at uni and deciding the close proximity of students to cats, and the debts that go along with studying was a bad combination and that we should instead wait until we were working, it has taken until now for us to be living in rental accommodation that will allow us to own them.
Throughout our time in the south of England we were restricted to where we could rent, mainly through budget restraints, but also because when our leases were up for renewal there was never an advertisement with the hallowed words 'pets allowed' currently available. That finally ended when we moved in July to our new place in Townsville and Emma received notification that we could have up to two domestic cats in residence. Since we were heading off to the UK for a three week holiday we deemed it was rather cruel to take a cat (or cats) out of a kennel at the RSPCA, take them home and make them settled for a week, and then promptly return them to a kennel and disappear for 3 weeks; not an ideal start to any relationship.
So Saturday came and we were both up and at the shelter for opening time at 8:30am and headed straight for the cattery. We saw three cars which would have been suitable to re-home alone, and two pairs which had been dropped off together. So it essentially came down to whether we wanted to take two home straight away, or take just one and then get another later. We really wanted one on it's own, a lovely black and white cat which was about one year old, but decided we wanted to take two. The volunteer who was assisting us then said that I would be better for them (and by this I think she meant both the cats and the RSPCA) if we were to take one of the pairs as they could be assured that they would get on together and it would not mean breaking them up if someone else came and wanted to take one of a pair. So that brought us to one older pair, a five and three year old, and a second younger pair of seven month old cats. The elderly pair was a large black cat and a relatively large Siamese cross although it was completely grey and was Siamese in body shape but not colouring. The young pair was a small tortoiseshell and white cat and a larger, but still fairly small seal point Siamese looking cat with brilliant blue eyes. This Siamese didn't quite have the body shape of a true Siamese so was also crossed with something else.
Emma and I talked it over and two hours after getting to the shelter, finally decided that we would take the younger pair home named Rosie and Mr Bojangles (we have decided on Bo for short) as they were fairly playful but mainly because we thought the older pair would cope with separation better than the youngsters, although we hope they also manage to get re-homed together.
So our household is now a cat's home. It is covered in cat hair because they could do with a bath and a brush to get out their winter coat, and tiny claw holes on a large array of furniture which we always knew would happen, and thus we didn't get top of the range furniture when we went shopping a few months ago. They are still a little unsure and have found a number of hiding spots where they sleep during the day and they come out for food and manic playtimes two or three time a day - when we are about to get up (not too early so far) and just before bed time.
I shall put up some photos of them soon.
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