To Oblivion and Beyond

Oblivion, (quickly renamed Oblee), came into my life in September 2008 with his brother Predator. I am told they had been put into a sack of some kind and thrown down a river bank. Fortunately someone had spotted this and rescued them. I’m not sure exactly how true all this is, but it would explain Oblee’s absolute fear of everything when I took them in.

This is all I saw of him for the first 3 weeks.

And here is his brother Predator who was much more chilled out about it all.

Predator was quickly adopted via the RSPCA and so I just had Oblee left. Gradually he started to come round and before long he was looking a lot more relaxed.

.

It was a busy time for the RSPCA and Oblee kept getting overlooked by adopters. As I often do with cats that stay longer than a month or so, I started to let him interact with my cats and to my absolute surprise they took to him readily which had definitely NEVER happened before. He came out of his shell and started to find his place in the pecking order – right at the top. Fudge is always at the bottom of the ladder in my house, even taking her place below any kittens that are around. But Georgie had established himself as king of the castle and started to object. He soon gave in though and now has the sulky teenager role.

Can you tell which one is Georgie?

Once he had his place in the house established Oblee started to work on wooing me and any visitors that came to the house. He would play fetch with rubber thimbles for hours. He would cuddle up to people and drape an “arm” over them and then give a big sigh of ecstasy. He would roll onto his back and wait patiently for his tummy to be tickled by any willing party. Everyone left my home in love with him.

By the end of November I had fallen hook, line and sinker for Oblee. And so he became an official member of the Joey Grey household.

.

Loving and Losing

Why does it take a minute to say hello
and forever to say goodbye

I’ve got very good at saying goodbye. Or so I tell myself. Over the last two years I’ve had dozens of cats and kittens in my life for a few short weeks that have then moved onto their new life.

Each cat comes to me as a blank slate – I’ve no idea if they are going to be boisterous, shy, aggressive or wrapped around my legs constantly. Within a few days they have become a full blown personality and I know I won’t forget them. Within a few weeks they have established themselves somewhere in the pecking order of my household, whether that be at the bottom to be picked on along with my darling Fudge, or fighting with my Oblee for top cat spot. (I’m somewhere in the middle of the pecking order, if you were wondering!)

...

Saying goodbye has to be the weirdest emotion I ever go through. With humans when you say goodbye, it is usually a temporary parting as the chances are you are going to see them again. But with cats it is very unlikely that you will ever see them again as the new owners don’t realise you ever were part of their new cat’s life.

It amazes me how strong I can be sometimes. I allow myself a full day, occasionally two, to grieve over the “loss” of one of my lodgers. The full works - heartbroken tears, vowing I’ll never do it again as it isn’t worth it, coming home from work and feeling as if my house is empty despite my three terrors. But then I get the call saying there is a mum with 1 day old kittens or a poor old lad who has been knocked down and needs one to one care and I can’t say no. And the cycle starts again.

But I never forget.