Tales of a Crazy Cat Lady and her PPPs (pampered pedigree pussies)

I am a crazy cat lady.

Growing up, my family always had cats, much to my fathers own upset. It was uncommon for us to have anything less 5 cats and most summers we had more than 10.  Growing up, the main family cat was Cavity. As with all fun animal names, Cavity got his a result of a family dental trip on the same day we got him. As children our parents always reminded us and quizzed us over our toothbrushing habits and ‘have you brushed your teeth?’, ‘Are you sure you brushed your teeth?’, “let me smell your breath’, typical sayings parents use.  My father was keen to ensure that we brushed our teeth, as ultimately he was the one who’d pay the bill if we didn’t.  On the day we got Cavity, our family of five visited the dentist, the three kids and my mother had no cavities (WIN WIN), however my father wasn’t so lucky and had a few. As children we found this hilarious, given all the constant reminders we had and thought that we should name the cat Cavity as it what would be a 16 year reminder to my father to brush his teeth.

I adore all cats, I rub every cat I see, ok, maybe not the overly ill looking ones but Ive renamed all of my neighbours cats and they run to me when they see me.

Free to a good home. This is a slogan that I grew up with, was given cats on, gave many cats away on and truly believe in. This is a slogan is practically non-existent in the UK. The majority of people charge for kittens and puppies and basically any animal. Basic prices start at about £35 and go up to £200 ($40-$250) and this is non pedigree animals. People believe that they shouldn’t be out of pocket when their non-spayed animals get knocked up. Some people truly believe that charging a large amount ensures a good home. When I have previously suggested the idea of giving them away for free, eyes have bulged, gasps have been made, all followed up with severe head shaking. I think the British just aren’t ready for ‘free to a good home’. My own personal opinion is that paying for animals which aren’t pedigree doesn’t encourage the owner to spay their animal (and rarely do they use this money to spay their animal), it does the opposite, by encouraging them to allow their animal to procreate for profit.  I am all for spaying and believe that unless you specifically want a pedigree animal, shelters are great places to rehome a animal who needs a home.

I crossed paths a Maine Coon when I lived in the states and honestly, I just remember it being this massive massive cat, (I was a child and now kind of remember it being sasquatch sized, so not entirely accurate), with loads of fur and thinking I will have one when Im an adult.  I do enjoy the Snopes post of why the dog ran away.

As part of my divorce I bought two Maine Coons and have never looked back. I am now a PPP (pampered pedigree princess/prince or pussy) snob. Sadly what I have learned with pedigree animals is that they have substantially shorter life (RIP Maizy and Tillie) and that seeing the family line is vital when buying the pet. I now have two Maine Coon kittens (roughly 14 months old), Callie and George and they are brother and sister. When I purchased the two, I went to a fellow crazy cat ladies house who has 17 Maine Coons, I looked at her and literally said ‘You are my future’ and we both laughed awkwardly. She has lots of space and runs for the cats and is a proper breeder. What I was able to see was the heritage, she had the grandmother, grandfather and both parents for the kittens. Rarely are you able to view more than one parent when buying cats, so this was a major win and it was great to see their size, attitudes, personalities and life span of the cats. Its obvious that they have come from a great line of healthy cats, which is so important. After the ill health and loss of Maizy and Tilli, its not something that I am ever prepared to compromise on again.

Elka (who is the non pedigree who has outlived many other cats), is also another member of the household and the matriarch. She is 11 years old with arthritis and tolerates the kittens, as best as she can.

Callie and George are both very quirky.  Callie is basically me in the cat form, so very very quirky and more than a little bit thick in the hip. George is very friendly but requires utter gentleness, which means hes not overly keen on me. They both want to be friends with Elka, however George just wants to play, which means he spoils it for both himself and Callie, as Elka just wants to sleep.

How are they getting to the land of clogs? I was keen to fly them, however, due to the George and Callies size, they are too big for the cabin (ideal solution) and the idea of putting them through as baggage has been panned by many of my colleagues, apparently this is cruel and can make them much more nervous than they already are. As they are literally treated like baggage, they go through the belt system and then literally sit on the tarmac as long a the luggage does with no special treatment and in all weather conditions. The noises and constant changing of surroundings are a sensory overload and scares the cats to the point of no return. My colleagues who have flown their cats as baggage have said they’d never do it again or allow anyone they know to do it either… So flying is not an option. Apparently flying them as cargo is an option (a very expensive option) and the animals are treated substantially better, however, because the distance I am going is only short, this is not an option available to me. Luckily there are courier companies who just deal with animals, HORRAY! So the answer to the problem is to have the cats couriered over, it ranges in prices but works out to be just over the price of flying them and it means that Im not the one having to drive them, listening to them howl for 12 hours straight, WIN for me.

Summer started off chill this year, so no summer shaves were given, however, they did have a belly shave to allow for some fresh air.  On the 5 hot days we’ve had my poor PPPs have now coped, so the answer was to get a hard swimming pool for them to play in and actually, its worked! They do love water anyway, so it seemed the right answer. The decision was then made to ‘pimp the pool’, a submersible pump was bought to give the water more movement (after these pictures were taken) and its even more of a luxury cool play area for them. Cats who require swimming pools to play in are quite possible too delicate to be shipped as luggage!