Do you have an interesting story to tell, a point of view you want to air or something that you just have to get off your chest? Send your thoughts, views, stories, funny photos and ‘mewsings’ to The Cat magazine, National Cat Centre, Haywards Heath, RH17 7TT or email us at editorial@cats.org.uk. Don’t forget to tell us your return address and contact details and please remember that your letter may be edited for length.
✪ STAR LETTER
Sumo’s trip to the dreaming spires From: Karen Sleep, Steeple Claydon, Bucks y cat Sumo went missing in October 2012. Some 18 months later, after having resigned myself to not seeing him again, and also having in the meantime acquired two other lovely cats, I was contacted by Beaumont Veterinary Group in Oxford telling me that someone had handed Sumo into them! This is some 27 miles from the village where I live. Sumo had been living on a building site during that time where all the staff fell in love with him and he was fed and cared for, especially by a man called Simon Davies. After the recent terrible winds and rain Simon couldn’t bear him living outside anymore and took him to the local vets, where they discovered Sumo was microchipped and they were able to contact me. All the family are over the moon at being reunited with Sumo after all this time and are so happy to have him back home. He has settled back in now and, apart from a bit of hissing and growling initially with my other two cats, the three cats get along very well. I have no idea how Sumo ended up in Oxford and the moral of this story is it really pays to have your cat microchipped, as without this we would not have known the fate of Sumo!
M
Never take for granted
From: Caroline Boobis, via email hen I took our cat to the vet the other day there was a woman weeping quietly in the waiting room, a tiny ball of fur shivering in the carrier at her feet. She was bringing her seven-year-old cat to be put down that morning, after losing its battle with cancer. She told me that she had already cancelled one appointment as she couldn’t bring herself to authorise that final act. She even apologised for crying, explaining that she was normally a very strong person, with a highpowered job. When she went into the consulting room with her beloved cat the sobs grew louder and outside in the waiting room we all glanced at each other, our own sad memories of much-loved pets flooding back. And although we might sometimes take our pets for granted, it really struck me how important they are to us humans, and how much we need them in our lives. I gave Gizmo an extra hug when I got him home.
W
10
The Cat Summer 2014
We’re moving in!
From: Christine and Dave Price, via email fter two rough winters, when Purdy and his brother Watts, could hardly ever get into their home at the time, they decided to look for new lodgings. They eventually settled on a house which had no pets and where somebody seemed to be at home most of the time. On the third visit Purdy wasn’t put straight back out and a couple of visits later he introduced his brother. Eventually they moved in with us. Purdy is ginger and white but his brother is all ginger (being the runt we think they ran out of white!). They are not at all like each other: Watts doesn’t pose for photographs, doesn’t play kittenish games, stays out some nights and spends a lot of time meditating. The last three years they have been really happy here, they have the run of the house, and my husband Dave’s shed is great – he has a computer which has a little moving dot which mesmerises Purdy! All in all we think they made a good choice in adopting us and they are, in their own ways, extremely contented. No more wet, windy nights.
A