Cats

As friends and regular readers will know we lost our beautiful little cat Rookie to cancer back in the summer. She was 19 so had a long life full of love and happiness. We wanted to wait a while until we thought about getting another cat, especially as we were getting married in the autumn

and going on honeymoon.

When we got back from our honeymoon in early December I got in touch with a local cat rehoming and adoption charity called RATS The lady from RATS came out to vet us in our home, always stressful even though I know we have a lovely home in a very quiet location. Anyway, she said we could adopt a cat from them but they weren't taking many cats on over the Christmas period so their fosterer could have a break. We'd need to wait until the New Year.

Then on Tuesday night we got a phone call from Stuart, Jason's brother to say he had two lovely tabby cats who needed a home would we be interested? Yes of course we said!

So pictured left are the 2 gorgeous tabbies which Stuart and Vicky brought round for us on Wednesday. The picture was taken on Wednesday when the cats had not been here too long. Once we let them out of the kitchen to explore the downstairs and upstairs hallways they decided that they liked the look of the top of our stairs where the hall turns down to the bathroom!

They are brother and sister and under 2.

They were originally Vicky's brother's cats but he needed to re-home them due to family circumstances. We are just so pleased that we are able to give them both a good home!

Jason has had his heart set on finding a beautiful sleek cat and then giving him the ironic name of Lumpy (I can't say I was keen on this name one bit!) The lovely larger male tabby certainly fits the bill being handsome and sleek so he is now Lumpy. (I sometimes call him Lord Humphrey Lumpyton; he's very distinguished looking as you'll see from the photo of him below, stretched out on the end of the bed!)

He is the braver of the two cats and loves exploring and climbing on things, he also loves watching out of the windows.

He really looks after his little sister though, even

licking her face sometimes :-) On the first day they curled up together in front of the bathroom door for the afternoon and had a well earned nap as you can see above!

Lumpy's little sister was harder for me to name. I really wanted her to have an unusual name which summed her up. After two days of wracking my brain and rejecting "Estella" (It would only work if Lumpy was called Pip) I decided to call her Kasumi which is Japanese for misty or hazy.

As you can see from this picture Kasumi is a misty colour and certainly can appear and disappear as quickly as sea mist!

Although she is slightly more timid at the moment than her brother she still loves exploring and in the evening will appear on the rug in the living room to play with her catnip toys. She loves stalking the mouse and then pouncing on him and throwing him about in the air. She also loves being stoked and having her tummy rubbed, though she'll grab your hand and hold on to it fast if you let her.

Today we opened up our smallest spare room for them to explore (we're just introducing to them to new rooms very slowly so they don't get overwhelmed.) It's my laundry room usually so has a clothes horse in it which they both enjoyed exploring. Lumpy likes the wide window sill - which he can spread out in and watch the garden from.

Lumpy is already King of the living room, rolling on the rug or guarding the french doors as you can see in the picture here. Both cats are really loving and although they are still getting used to

us and the new house they want lots of cuddles and fuss. I can tell that they are gong to provide us with endless fun and affection and I feel privileged to share our home with two such beautiful and loving animals.