Some days, I have to do two posts for the day, but when I do, it’s because I’m equally passionate about each topic. Today, I’ll be talking about C-PTSD (mental health), and I’ve also got my cats to talk about. Cause they’d never forgive me if I didn’t give them a mention, at least. And in a way, they’re interlinked. I think the cats keep me grounded and sane. They keep me company when there’s only me in the house, and give me something to focus on. Plus, I’m pretty sure the studies on purring at least have some evidence, even anecdotal, in our house.

A short history of cats to date

I was raised in households with cats (for a little while as a small child, then when we moved into our homes in the Cotswolds), birds (always), and dogs (till I left my mom’s). I’m used to having pets around. When we moved to the Cotswolds, I was desperately lonely, and we got Kushka, aka Office Cat. If you go to that post, you’ll see what a doll she was, but despite our best efforts, she died in 2013 from a massive chest infection. We’d adopted her and discovered she had a permanent Upper Respiratory Infection. Kushie was, though, a gorgeous cat. And super smart. And bonded to me like nothing on earth. I held her as she slipped away.

She was, quite frankly, one of the most incredible cats I’ve ever met. I could tell so many stories, but she is the reason my press is called what it is.

But after we got the house sorted out, and cleaned everything that we could, we adopted our current girls, Haley and Eiryss.

Kittens?

Our girls…

We lost Kushie end of February, after six years with her. After we worked out what we needed to do to clean the house to ensure any cats we adopted next wouldn’t catch what she had. And then we went looking to adopt again.
We were lucky to get Kushka, who was an F4 Bengal, as an adopted cat. And unless there was a compelling reason, I don’t think we’d adopt a brand new kitten, and instead rescue. But, given how hard we found it losing Kushie so soon, we chose to look for much younger cats. Luckily, we found Hercules and Missy.
The woman we adopted them from was a cat fosterer who had to stop having cats because her asthma and allergies were getting worse, and she couldn’t manage that anymore.
Hercules (aka Haley) and Mischief (aka Eiryss) were just under a year when we took them on. Haley was hand-reared, while Eiryss was bought to keep her company. They’re both very different, very sweet and very cute.

Spotlight on Haley

Our gorgeous Haley is white and grey, teeny tiny, even now, and is very much a cat that loves comfort most of the time. Shockingly though, if either of them are catching anything (which is rare, and they’re belled), chances are she’s the blood wee maniac that’s getting birds. She loves comfortable, fluffy blankets, sunlight and the best food. Her favourite toys involve feathers and ribbons, her favorite spot is on my daughter’s knee. In fact, in one of the photos, she’s stolen one of my daughter’s oldest teddies, Scruffy. She looks innocent, but honestly, she’s devious and uses her ‘cute’ to her own gain. Which is adorable.

Exhuberant Eiryss

Until recently, Eiryss was a very active cat. She spent most of her time outside, and isn’t particularly…lapcatissh. Though she’ll climb on Tempus, my other half and beloved, and will cuddle on her terms, but is a very independant, very loud cat. She adore all of us, I’m her favourite at barbeques, where we make her salmon (well, we make my salmon, and she and I share), and she gets to enjoy that with us. Every night, she’ll chase us to bed, so she can get cuddles before going to sleep, and has taken to interrupting my other half’s calls to climb to her spot on the windowsill, in his office.
While both of them are very intelligent, Haley has a sly kind of intelligence, while Eiryss is…more direct. She loves pom-poms and dry food (we joke that she thinks she’s an astronaut). Her favorite spot is where she’s photographed, on the windowsill in my office, or our bed, or on top of the bookcase outside our room. She is more adventurous, I’d say, of the two of them. As the summer comes in, we’ll see how she goes, but both of them are slowing down a little.

(most photos (c) Artenapan, a few of them myself or Tempus, my partner)

And that’s the girls

If you like them, they do, of course, have a Facebook and Instagram, though we’re pretty bad at updating them. (well, no, I’m terrible, Artenapan is great at it).

These are my girls. Let me know about your pets, please?

Yesterday’s Posts

B for Blogging

B for (world) Building

Yesterday’s comments

J Lennie Dorner

J R Vincente

The Multicoloured Diary

Kai

Kai is a writer, author and avid reader.  A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.