Cats – not the musical as

My younger son posted to his Facebook wall.

The first few days, weeks, months after we had to put down our last cat, for me there was no question of ever acquiring another (the fact that it happened very shortly after my sister died didn’t help, nor did the fact that my brother and sister-in-law also had to put down their dog then as well).

The second year it was nice to not have to organize someone to come in and see to cats as I traveled. This state of affairs lasted until the middle of this summer, then all of a sudden I couldn’t imagine spending the winter without a cat in the house.  I patiently waited until I finished renting in the mountains for the year, then checked out the web-site for the local animal shelter: http://www.sgpa.ch/

They were open for adoptions three afternoons a week and as my younger son was interested in going along with me we were finally able to do so two days ago.  I went thinking that I would take a cat that had been there some time, would let the cat pick me and would even be willing to have two as I was sure that it isn’t easy to place pairs.

Well, it seems that all the cats that we looked at and touched were more than happy to be our friends – even the ones that the girl thought were difficult! So that wasn’t helping.  After two hours (poor son, he is allergic and his eyes were red and he was coughing) we did finally decide to take the pair of sisters: Gougou and Kitty.

Now it won’t matter what language you translate this into, Gougou as a name just wasn’t going to happen and Kitty in our eyes wasn’t much better.  It was a very long drive home (traffic hour) and when S mentioned that one looked almost like she had eyeliner, I said Cleopatra – promptly shortened to Cléa.  Gougou took a wee bit longer but with her white bib – in France a “bavette” it just seemed to come out of nowhere – Babette.

First night was spent in the laundry room, both hiding behind the furniture under the pipes, 24 hours later Cléa was already acclimated but Babette is a bit more stand-offish.  Both don’t like sudden movements and prefer people coming down to their level, but are (very) quickly adjusting. They are four years old but have retained their youthfulness and absolutely love being petted and rubbed.

My winter will be much warmer with them in the house and I can only plead for anyone else needing a cat or dog to head for their local animal shelter – there are so many needing good homes.

Just a word for those of you wanting pictures right away - have you ever tried to take a picture of a cat that doesn't even really want to see you at the moment? It took until last night to get anything slightly o.k. but here they are!

Babette who looks like she got into the chocolate

Cléa, who contrary to appearances here, comes readily and loves being petted.