My Long Journey To Purr-fect.

When I was a kitten, I remember everything being purr fect. Then suddenly my life changed and everything became cat- astrophic. Meow.

I remember being warm, well fed, my mother cat licking me clean and snuggling me up to her, along with my brothers and sisters. A human would come over and feed mother cat and look us over. We lived in a place Mother called a cat shed. She was allowed out at times.

There I was cozy, safe, not a care in the world. Then this nasty human came over, looked down at all the kittens, then poked me with his finger.

“That one won’t sell. It looks nothing like a pure-bred kitten. We might get away with selling the others, that one’s too small. I’ll get rid of it.” He shouted to the other human.

I hadn’t known we were supposed to be some special sort of cat, and how did he intend to get rid of me? I moved closer to mother cat and she put a paw around me.

Imagine how scared I was when he pushed mother away, picked me up roughly, and dropped me into a box. He shut it and everything was dark.  I tried to claw my way out, but got nowhere. I shouted to mother cat, and she shouted back, sounding as scared as I was.

The box shook about, then I was thudded down. There was a strange noise, rocking and bumping. I was meowing like crazy, terrified. Eventually the noise and the bumping and shaking stopped. The box was snatched up, tipping me off my paws. Whatever was about to happen to me?

The man opened the box and slung me out. I landed on some cold wet grass. He got back into what I have since learned is called a car, and he drove off, back home, I supposed.

I looked about. A country lane, no other cats or kittens. It was all new and strange to me. All I had seen before was a very small yard. I was relieved that he had left me, he was not a nice human, but what did I do now? I wanted to go back to mother cat and the other kittens. I knew that I couldn’t. That man was so horrid. What would he do to me next, if I turned up back there?

After walking a long way, I was tired, cold. and hungry. Food, where could I get food, and somewhere warm to call home. I reached some houses and saw a cat going in a cat door, er, flap, so I followed it, feeling nervous, but driven by hunger. There was a bowl of cat biscuits, and no sign of the other cat, I emptied the bowl, and had a drink of water from another bowl, and looked around, wondering if I could live there. A human saw me and yelled at me. I fled back out of the door, erm flap. Meow! I got away with that.

For a long time, I slept in cold doorways, snatched any food I could find, and was chased away, people throwing things at me. It was awful. After a few weeks, I did find a large building, with a porch, I could sleep in. I heard people call it a church. The porch became home, cold at night, but better than a doorway.

This became my life, steal other cats’ food, or human’s food off their table, get caught, kicked or slapped. A woman tossed a bucket of water at me when she caught me trying to go through her rubbish bin.

When I sneaked into other cats homes to get food, I would think, some cats are so lucky, a warm home, humans who are nice to them, all the food they needed. Why hadn’t I got any of that?

I sneaked into a pet shop one evening, having smelt something interesting as I walked by, and then I heard a human coming and I hid under the counter. Next minute the door was locked and the lights put out. When all was quiet, I explored and worked out where the delicious smells where coming from. There was a pile of big bags of cat biscuits. I clawed one open and the biscuits poured out across the floor and other bags toppled over. I ate and ate. There were other tasty smells but I couldn’t get into the packaging with my claws. I looked in the window. There was what looked like a colourful bird in a cage, on top of a pole. I climbed up to look at it and knocked the pole and lots of other things over. The bird wasn’t real. Then I saw a stack of boxes, with pictures of a cat on them. They smelt yummy. I climbed on top of the pile and tried to claw my way in. Then the boxes wobbled and the whole pile fell over. I leapt clear, so everything was alright. I ate some more biscuits from the bag I’d opened, then had a cat nap. It was tiring, all these new things to explore. Later I jumped up on the counter and looked at some more bags of food. They had a dog picture on them. I clawed one open, and ate some of the biscuits that poured out, they weren’t as tasty as cat ones though, so I jumped down, oh I knocked the dog biscuit bag over and it knocked several other things off the counter. Time to eat more cat biscuits. Then it was daylight and the door was opened and the human walked in. She screamed and shouted,

“Is there anybody there?”

I was hiding under the counter again and kept quiet. She took something out of her pocket, held it to her face and talked to it.

“We been broken into and vandalized. The shop is in a terrible mess. Come over quick.”

I supposed I had made rather a mess.  Another human came shortly after and they stood looking around and talking about it. They had left the front door open, so I sneaked out. That was one of the best nights I had ever had, since I was snatched away from my mother cat. Shame I couldn’t go back there and eat biscuits again.

One day, I was sitting in the church porch. A woman walked up and went to touch me. I backed away, afraid of her. She asked someone if I was a stray. Later I was having a catnap, and suddenly that woman tried to pick me up. I struggled free and ran. She chased after me. Cats can outrun humans and run up trees. She stood under the tree, looking up at me. I dare not return to the porch until night time. The next morning, having spent some of the night, searching for food, I was in the porch napping when suddenly, that woman was there again.

I was picked up and put in a box! No, not again. I was terrified. The box swayed about, was put into a car and I was shaking about, and trying to claw my way out, with no success. The car eventually stopped and the box was picked up. I hoped the worst that would happen was, I would be thrown out into a country lane, like last time.

When the box was put down and opened, I leap out and tried to run. There were big windows, a closed door, a cat flap I couldn’t push my way through. Several humans were there, looking at me. One of them put some food out and showed it to me. Then the humans went into another room and left me alone. I was very hungry and ate the food and drank water from a bowl they had put there. Then I dashed about trying to escape, so afraid of humans after the bad times I’d had. No escape possible. Later they fed me again and reached out to touch me. No way! They talked to me, but they didn’t speak cat. They discussed names for me and decided to call me Catty, saying the church I was found in was St. Catherine’s but I was a male cat. I didn’t understand much of that. As days went by, I was not quite as afraid of them. I hid under a table, when they came to feed me, then ran over and gobbled the food up when they had gone again. They had put a plastic box down with something inside, for me to use as a cat toilet, and there was a comfy looking cat bed. It had a hood on top and I was afraid to use it for a long time, in case it was a trap, a type of box.

It took me a few months to trust them at all. I took a while to get used to them shouting “Here Catty” when they wanted to see me, though I don’t mind what I’m called as long as they are kind, and feed me. Now, months later, I am a happy cat, with a home, food, kind humans and my own cat flap. I go out into the garden whenever I want to, come in when it’s cold and lay on my back with my paws in the air in front of the fire. Everything is Purr fect.