6 Months

Charlie and Tina are with us now 6 months and what a great 6 months it has been.

They’ve settled in so well. Tina had a small outbreak of ringworm, but the topical treatment worked. It disappeared and she never got the ringworm back.  The only slightly disturbing issue was that Charlie had to miss part of his tail but he’s fine without.

Charlie is the one who changed a lot physically. He was a very slim tomcat and Orla had already nicknamed him ferret, which I didn’t particularly like. He has now grown into a strong muscular tomcat and often catches huge rats and can be a bit rough in his play with Tina. Tina changed a lot in her behaviour. She started off as a nervous girl and ran almost every time when she would meet someone in the hall. She’s now a confident beautiful lady who cuddles up to us on her own terms and allows me to pick her up and hold her for a short while. When I have a lie-in with my book on days off, she often lies down under the covers under my legs for a while. She’s well able for Charlie and will let him know when she doesn’t like his behaviour. They get on fine.

Both like the cat trees, which have dens, platforms and hammocks. Tina took to the hammocks straight away. She often lies in one of them after a hunting session outside or a play session inside. Charlie lies in one of the dens regularly, but is getting more interested in the hammocks as well.

Both like playing but Tina loves it fast. She runs around the coffee table chasing the toy and up and down the cat trees as well.

They both have their way of communicating with Orla and I.

Charlie loves a bit of kibble every now and then and when he wants some, he goes to the door of the utility room and when I open it he stares up at where I keep the kibble.

He brings me to the fridge when he wants other food. He’s a very efficient communicator, but so is Tina.

Tina loves playing and sometimes, when she’s bored, drags a toy in to where one of us is so we’ll play with her. She also meows to let us know she’s finished in the litter box as if to say “ok, you can clean it now”.

They both have an array of meows that they use to communicate with us. Charlie greets with a short high stutter which sounds like “ek, ek”. Tina uses a high rolling sound that goes a bit like “mwrrrrrrr”. Both Tina and Charlie have a distinct longer meow that is the equivalent of the typical Limerick call “come here I want ya”.

When they want something they call us and then simply walk in front of us to show us what they want.

It humbles me to see how they fully seem to trust us and treat us as family, bringing gifts (rodents), grooming us and hang out with us.

They’ve changed the dynamics in our house, but in a positive way. Orla and I were happy together, but the cats add so much. They make us laugh, they help us chill and give us comfort. They’ve enriched our lives in many ways. Of course it comes at a price. We can’t just go somewhere without making sure they’re cared for. We will have to look at how we’re going to do it when going on a holiday. But sure, it’s well worth the hassle. We wouldn’t want to miss them for the world. We both love them to bits.