Wellington (Or a story about adopting an older cat)

A New Cat…

Wellington (or Welly if we want to be informal) arrived to us from a lady who had recently got a new dog. She felt that the puppy was too boisterous as he wanted to play, and Welly wanted to sleep, so she had to keep the two of them in separate rooms.

Wellington was 15 years old when he joined our family (he is now 16), consisting of me, my partner and a Bearded Dragon called Draco.

 

He wasn’t best pleased when he arrived with us. We hadn’t met him before so the sights and smells in our house were unfamiliar to him. He did sit in his carrier for a while before venturing out gingerly for a sniff around.

Early Days

Wellington soon discovered our house was pretty quiet. He had free rein of the house and got to chose where to sleep.

One of his favourite places to laze around is on the stairs. Being in a pretty old house the stairs are open, both between the steps and on the side. He frequently likes to sit on the stairs in such a way that you cannot get past him, until you pay the toll that is, which is normally a quick stroke or a chin tickle. He will then stand up and let you past him before sitting back down again ready for when you have to come back.

I am not entirely sure what he was doing on this day but he was sticking his head through the stairs to watch me as I was walking about underneath them.

Places for cats

Anyone with a cat knows they are pretty fussy animals, and Welly is no exception. He likes to pick where the wants to sleep or sit and he will moan at you (rather vocally) if you disturb him or try to move him on.

Being an older gentleman Welly cannot jump up very high these days and is a bit wobbly on ridges such as the back of the sofa. However upstairs the windows are only around 2 foot off the ground, providing a perfect spot for spying on the neighbours.

Anywhere the sun is Welly is too. He also complains at us if the sun goes in, he will sit up and stare at us, giving us a miow as if we have turned it off!

The bed is also a sleeping place of choice. He also knows if he waits until the humans want to come to bed then he will get a fuss before he heads off to bed himself for the night (to sleep off the hard day of sleeping)

The sofa is also good for napping, especially on the (not very fur resistant) cover.

The quirks of an older cat

Anyone who meets Welly is always surprised when you tell them he is 16. For his age he is still quite spritely and will run around chasing toys like the best of them.

Although given the option to go out he prefers to spend all of his time in the house, we do have a small courtyard he will patrol before deciding to come back in again.

Between sleeping he likes to nap and then perhaps eat a bit and follow us around to see if we are doing anything interesting.

Some mornings he likes to sing on the stairs. On occasion this has been around 4am although we have managed to break this habit by feeding him later at night. He does however like to come and wake you if he has used his litter tray to remind you to come and clean it for him.

On cold mornings he will wake you to pull back the covers so that he can come and sleep next to you in the warm.

We have tried many different brands of cat food. As soon as he settles on one he gets bored after a month and refuses to eat it anymore. Fingers crossed he stays with the current one!

Sometimes he will stare at you and miow, apparently for no reason other than to say hello.

A note on rehoming

Given the choice I would rehome a cat again over having one from a kitten. There is something satisfying about giving a cat a new forever home.

Please don’t overlook the senior cats in the cattery. They still play with toys, love a good fuss and sleep in cute positions. With the added bonus of them arriving housetrained and probably arriving with some unique personality quirks too!

p.s. for those of you who are interested Wellington is a Blue Point British Shorthair! He is called Wellington because his legs look like he is wearing wellington boots!

The post Wellington (Or a story about adopting an older cat) appeared first on Katzenworld.

from Katzenworld https://ift.tt/2E2yXvW