The unknown joy of cat parenthood

Three years of loving Victor 🐾

20 of the thousands of Vic photos from my phone. The cutest black and white cat doing cat things. Eating, yawning, exploring, napping and being forced to cuddle with me

Hello you,

I wonder, when did life last surprise you in a wonderful way?

“Consider all the unknown possibilities for joy.”

This beautiful invitation comes from

Rhonda Willers

in

Suleika Jaouad

’s The Book Of Alchemy (which I cannot recommend highly enough).

There was once a time when I never would have dreamed of being a cat parent. Having a pet just wasn’t even a blob on the radar.

Yet this week marked the three year adoption anniversary of our FANTABULOUS cat, Victor.

For most of my life, the sheer abundant joy of loving Victor was completely unknown to me.

Just think…what other unknown joys could be coming our way?

It is three years since we rushed to Pets at Home to buy panic buy a cat carrier, a scratching post, a litter tray and other items on a list we barely new the meaning of. ‘Eh? What on earth is a flirt pole?’

It is three years since we crouched down and bent our necks to get a glimpse of him, cowering with eyes barely open at the back of a pod.

Three since they shoved us out of the door with smiles, good lucks and a cardboard wallet of forms.

I’m still surprised by this whole turn of events.

If you’d have told me a few short years ago that I’d own a cat I would have scoffed. If you’d have told me that I would be so in love with and obsessed with him that I’d automatically speak to him in a gross baby voice, have hundreds of photos of him on my phone and that he’d make me laugh daily just by doing normal cat things, I would not have believed you for a millisecond.

Yet, here we are.

Victor is the best nap buddy ever. Here we are cuddling on the sofa with a grey blanket

Victor is our son, our family member, and the shared love we have for him is inexplicable.

We only ended up with a cat because I begrudgingly offered to look after my sister’s cat, Rosie, as an absolute last resort a few years ago. She came to live with us for a week. I made it very clear that I did not want to do this. But this kitty had no where else to go.

As soon as she arrived, I lost her. Well, I thought I did, but she was so terrified that she’d tucked herself into the tiniest slot behind the sofa, under the radiator. It took me until the third look to spot the two shiny eyes peering back.

A few days later when she came and sat on me of her own free will, I realised I had never received such a high compliment. I had been chosen. That was it.

When my sister came to collect her I was bereft. The house felt so empty and Rosie-less.

A few months later I emailed our local RSPCA expressing an interest in two young, ‘friendly’ cats. By the time we’d been interviewed, Gandalf had already been selected by a new family. So Victor it was.

We didn’t know what Vic’s 18 months of life so far had been like. But we knew he was scared. He would secrete himself into the tiniest spaces around the house, lying completely flat for hours under the television stand or shimmying himself in behind a mattress we were storing up against a wall.

But then, one day, as we were watching TV on the sofa, he nonchalantly padded into the room. We simultaneously held our breath and tried to act natch.

His confidence grew by the day until, another moment of celebration. He sat with us!! It took all my strength not to pounce on him and squeeze his beautiful fur and bones to my body. But no. It had to be on his terms (and this is still the case today).

Three years later he is a scaredy cat no more. He has the most fabulous life prowling around his patch of the world. Living in the countryside there is (unfortunately) no shortage of mice and shrews for him to predate. He is very good at it…

He gets braver every day. Bothered no more by the barky dog who lives in next door’s garden. Of course to Vic it is not next door’s garden. It’s an extension of his domain.

Victor is the absolute best. There are not enough words in the English language to capture the specific joy and he adds to our lives. We are putty in his paws.

He merely has to turn his head and we are enraptured. We can’t help but watch him doe eyed and grinning as he scratches his post. We can’t help but say ‘HELLO!’ in a sing song voice whenever he enters a room. We cannot help but pause our TV programme to go outside and see where he’s sitting and in what position. He is just an utter UTTER delight!

All of this is to say that Rhonda is right to ask,

“What might you love that you don’t even know about yet?”

Whatever life I have left to live, there may be other joys akin to cat parenthood that I have no idea of yet. Joys that surprise me. Depths of love I haven’t reached yet. People I will adore with all my very being. Things I will create. Experiences that will leave me breathless, smiling or belly laughing. Wisdom I’ll lean into.

None of us know what is around the corner. It is the terrifying truth of the human condition. The shadow of all this is that one day darling Vic will be made only of memories.

None of us know what exquisite joy is around the corner either. And I am learning to be ready to receive it with gusto, whenever it arrives at my door. Just like the familiar sound of Victor shouting up to say ‘good morning’ as he did just now.

• Please take this as your invitation to tell me about your darling pets in the comments!

• Have you been surprised by an unexpected joy? I’d love to hear about this too

Janelle x

P.S You can hear from Victor here in his exclusive

MeowStack

interview

MeowStack #9: Victor is a cuddly, snuggly PREDATOR

P.P.S I am gently building something new over here called

Nature Writing Club which you might like to have a peep at