Meet the other 'man' in my life. OK, so sleeping all day and demanding his dinner when he's hungry is not every persons idea of the perfect housemate, but to me he's pretty flawless.
We met about 18 months ago, back in Kent where I use to live when I was still a single girl.
I already had two cats, Pudding and Timmy. Pudding was mine from a tiny kitten, I picked him out from the litter. Timmy was found sleeping on our computer chair one morning, and after a week of these AM visits we realised, as well as his owners, that he liked it at ours so we let him stay. His own cat bowl seemed to cement the contract and he never went back to his original home. Then one day I heard the cat flap open and a tinkle of a bell. I crept into the kitchen but all I saw was an empty bowl and some white socks leaping out the cat flap.
There were few more of these sightings until one morning, instead of bolting, he hesitated, looked back and I knew I had him. He followed me into the lounge where he immediately pounced into my lap and started to paw the dressing gown I was wearing. After that he was always round. Pudding accepted him but Timmy was absolutely outraged that another cat had moved onto his turf. Lots of hissing and a claw to the face didn't put the little black and white usurper off, you had to give it to him, he was resilient. He had a collar with a tag, and upon investigation we saw that he had an owner called Derek who lived at number 4. I was growing really attached to him, he was my little shadow, but I would be moving soon and what with two cats I knew I wouldn't be able to look after him as well, he's have to go back.
As fate would have it, my brother saw 'Derek' at a boot fair. My brother told him how the cat had moved in and stuck by his sister's side. Derek was the cat's name! He had a brother called Rodney (get the connection?) and they owners had just got a kitten called Sonny who was tearing the house up and terrorising poor old Derek. They were upset he'd moved out but just wanted him to be happy and said I could have him. I was so very happy but my husband to be wasn't having any of it. So I made a really, really hard decision.
My friend Phil loves cats as much as I do, but his cats had died a couple of years before, leaving a massive hole in the family. I asked if they would like to adopt Pudding and Timmy. I was really torn, but in the end it made sense. Although Pudding was the first on the scene, I just couldn't let go of Derek. I knew they were going to a really loving home, and seeing as Phil is one of my best friends, I would still see them, and they love it there.
So Derek became part of the family. My husband has grown to love him, despite a little bit of jealousy when he's getting all the cuddles. He's a vocal little character that loves having his tummy rubbed, I suspect he's having a clandestine affair at the house across the road (I'm talking about the cat, not husband) and he picked up fleas when we first moved in (again, cat not husband) but I love hearing him pad across the bedroom floor at night and I can't imagine life without the little fleabag.
No comments:
Post a Comment