This is Butterball Brown, who’s never been particularly friendly to Tess, making himself at home in her bed … then Tess arriving home to find she had to sleep elsewhere. Such expressions! The smug cat and the woe-is-me dog!!

He took to me pretty much straight away – whether my general orange vibe (wore an orange t-shirt especially for meeting him) or my cat voice – either way, smooched and enjoyed a big pat not long after meeting.

We don’t know much of his history, he’s not really a knee cat but will sit crammed up next to you, and he did sleep on the bed for an hour or so on the first night, right on top of my foot but jumped off when I had to move because I had pins and needles.

He did sleep at the other end of the couch and eventually right next to me with his back leg draped across my lap while I was knitting and even though he jumps at loud noises and the vacuum cleaner he didn’t bat an eye lid when a bottle of champagne was uncorked so he must’ve come from an orange, champagne-drinking, knitting household!

Rather a few freaky bits, a look at what some people do with their cats other than pat, feed, play and keep healthy:

• The Japanese woman who makes cat clothes and dresses up her cats as lords and princesses and bunnies and MICE of all things (how confusing for the cat!)
• The people who buy cute little tiger cubs for pets then wonder what to do with them when they grow to hundreds of kilos and take bites out of them and their furniture so keep them in closets and basements
• The woman who joins together different breeds and has ended up with a bald, short-front legged, normally back-legged cat that’s beginning to resemble a small kangaroo
• The people who are allergic to cat fur but got one anyway and have it shaved – I’ve seen many sheep being shorn in my time but watching footage of a cat being shorn made me physically cringe, just seemed so wrong!

It seems that someone does feed her though, she had her own plate of cat food there so I’m sure it must be one of the restaurants nearby that takes care of her.

Then today we went to Thorndon to meet Mrs H’s Issy. Having people over for the first time when they’re there to meet your cat breaks down all sorts of barriers because I was crawling all around their house and inviting myself into every room and nook and cranny to find the cat … well perhaps it’s just me and other first-time guests would sit politely on the couch nibbling biscuits and drinking tea! A totally adorable cat!

So off we rushed! Caught sight of her in the distance but she never came near where we were. And we didn’t see her the next time or the next time or the next time … then last week when we got to our lunch spot a man in an SPCA uniform was waiting nearby. We began to worry and imagine all sorts of things, mostly wondering why he had to take the cat away if she seemed happy living there and not bothering anyone. Eventually a woman came and met the SPCA man and took him around to the rocks opposite where we were sitting. He collected a cage on the way so I hoped that was a sign that the cat wasn’t too badly injured or dead. The man crawled down the rocks and rustled the cat out of a hidey place – it jumped up onto the wall next to the lady for a pat before being placed into the cage. And off the SPCA man went with the cat in the back.

We finished our lunch and wondered what was going on. I got onto Twitter when I got back to work and asked the SPCA if they knew anything

They did!

That was about a week ago, and when we went down for lunch a couple of days ago we got pretty close to her but short of crawling around behind others enjoying lunch in the sun I still didn’t get a pat. I waited patiently and called as much as I could without annoying everyone! (She’s behind the man in the blue/grey shirt.)

Then today we made a last minute decision to go down for a quick lunch seeing as it was such a gorgeous day and we finally got to sit next to her! She loves a pat and very much enjoyed bits of ham out of Mrs H’s sandwich. I sent a photo onto the SPCA so they could see that she was being well cared for even if she didn’t have a regular house and family.

Vernon we were glad to meet you and you were SUCH a lovely cat.

A couple more pictures to remember you by – a pat from Aidan before bed

And a special quiet cat corner in Aidan’s man tent.

Happiness is patting a cat

Anyway, Lizzie’s batch this week caught the eye (and nose) of Scooby – Matt managed to get this great photo!

Got a text yesterday while we were out having coffee with this photo and the message “Meet Vernon, perhaps you could come and visit him?” – was very excited! Obviously I knew who the text was from but I didn’t tell The Mister, just showed him the photo and asked him to guess (the floor is a giveaway for us) but his first horrified comment was “oh no, Tess hasn’t died has she?” The plan was for cats after the dogs had gone to doggie heaven but as we’ve since discovered, Vernon is such a lovely, placid family cat abandoned at the SPCA that they’re not worried about having a dog and cat at the same time. So far all is well. And Vernon slept on Aidan’s bed last night so he’s right at home already – he knows who the boss of that house is!

Now off to find the next cheap flights to get down there and meet him!