We've adopted two cats through Sheffield Forum!

NOTE: Click on photos to see a larger version.

Last month, our 17 year old cat Barney died. This was heartbreaking for me, as I've never lived with anyone for so long: family, children, friends or boyfriends. Barney was in many ways my best friend and I adored him. My partner Brian carved a headstone for him and we buried him in our garden; I wrote an obituary for him here on my main blog.

After Barney died, our other cat, Towser, who's 13, became listless, bored, and quite obviously lonely. Towser has never been the only animal in the household - in the past he's lived with two other cats, two dogs and three children. Now all he had was us, and he seemed to be sinking into a state of depression.

So we thought we'd adopt two kittens in order to give him some company. As a long shot, I decided to start a thread on Sheffield Forum in the Sheffield Interest Groups, Sheffield Pet Owners section. It's here.

I posted the thread at ten to nine on a Sunday morning. By ten to two we had two new cats - not exactly kittens; they were nine month old males who needed rehoming, so they're teenagers.

They were originally called Garfield and Casper, but eventually we decided to rename them in order to help them settle in to their new life, so now they're called Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, after two of Brian's favourite musicians, or Beefy and Zappy for short.

Several people on the thread at sheffieldforum.co.uk have asked for photos, so I've taken a few to show how they're settling in...

Left, Beefy (formerly Garfield) and right, Zappy (formerly Casper), hiding behind the sofa when they first arrived.

Beefy quickly decided that he wanted to make his nest in the middle of the board game shelf, so we shifted the Top Trumps collection out of the way and put a blanket there for him.

After a few days, Zappa started to play. Here Bry is teasing him with one of my bookmarks.

Beefy got more confident by the day. Here he is pretending the armchair is a lady cat, biting its neck and wiggling his bits around. I didn't realise what was going on at first, ew! LOL :)

Beefy a bit miffed that the lady cat wasn't very responsive.


Zappy after a few days of settling in.

Beefy emerging through the front door of a cardboard box house I made for them.

Zappy reaching out to touch the camera.



Zappy and Beefy in Barney's old chair.



Beefy pulling Bry's climbing guidebooks off the bookshelf...


...then going back for more.


Beefy in the front window, stalking a fly.


Beefy's first venture down the bottom of the garden. As soon as he saw the willow tree he was straight up it. Here, he's about 15 feet off the ground.


...and thinking about going higher.




Beefy, right at the top of the pic, about 30 feet up the tree.


And doing a squirrel leap from the bottom branch.


... back down to the ground after his third trip up the tree.


Beefy sitting on top of one of Bry's mud towers, trying to attract something a bit fitter than our leather armchair.


Bry sitting nearby in the chair he built.


This is Beefy standing up on Barney's gravestone.

As soon as Towser saw this, he ran down the garden and started approaching Beefy. Here Beefy has just noticed Towser. Up until now, he had hissed at Towser every time Towser came near.

But here, they have their first ever hiss-free friendly greeting, right on Barney's grave. That was a bit spooky, actually, as if Barney was telling them to be friends from beyond the grave.

Thanks so much to Binty and Sparklygem from Sheffield Forum for giving us the chance to adopt them. We adore them already :)

...So, so far then, I've found one fiance and two cats from forums...(actually Brian found me on a forum, not the other way round)...I wonder what's next, LOL :)

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© Jude Calvert-Toulmin.

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