A Cat's Life for Me

I have been writing for many years since the age of thirteen, but I have only been a cat owner for around seven months. What happened? Why did I suddenly need a black kitten called Dottie? I am not sure, I think I started with 'let's get a kitten because my Nana used to own cats and I miss her,' and she was followed by another black and white girl from the RSPCA called Holly, followed by 'I'll donate monthly to Cat's Protection, who kindly send out quarterly magazines and then another kitten, a boy for Mother’s Day, followed by 'I'll get my girls published in the Cat's Protection magazine!'

My girls, Dottie and Holly kindly posed with an issue of the magazine, I wrote a brief piece about how they had helped me and the family through lock-down, which was my first piece of writing for a long time, but I had finally found something that I was passionate enough to write about, and in return I received a month’s supply of cat food along with the issue of the magazine that they were published in, which was much needed as I lost my job in April and had been struggling to feed little furry mouths. I just hope I find a job before it runs out.

Cat's Protection and my kittens have been something of a lifeline to me over the last few months. My youngest kitten Jay-Jay the ginger and part Bengal, also known as ‘The Ginger Stinker’, if you could smell the litterbox after he has been in it, you would understand why, he has been quite affectionate during my difficult days, when I think that I will never find a job and that I am letting the family down and I am lucky enough to live in an area with a Cat's Protection charity shop.

I have been volunteering two half days a week, while I look for work, attend interviews, look after my daughter, three kittens, recently divorced Mother, who I rent a house with and a grandfather, too scared to get his own meals due to the pandemic and his age and too forgetful to take them out of the freezer the night before.

So far, my main duties at Cat’s Protection have been back-stock related. I have recently learned how to attach tags to clothes, create gift aid labels and steam clothes (I am not much of an ironing fan, I have lost many nice clothes through forgetfulness, too much heat and too much pressure!) However, so far there have been no fabric casualties and I am looking forward to some re-training on the till and dealing a little more with the general public and giving the busy managers a chance to get a much deserved and needed lunch break and a cup of tea, if they wish.

Cat's Protection has become more than a charity for strays and unwanted cats for me, they have helped me rediscover my passion for writing and taking pictures, they have helped me fill what would be a huge gap in my CV and given me some much needed confidence, while I look for work and work through my depression, that I struggled with due to my last employment, without them, I would probably still be struggling to get out of bed each day and find my purpose.

This is so much more than entering a competition for me, this is my BIG thank you to everyone at Cat’s Protection, for everything that they have done for me, others, cats, and kittens not quite as blessed as my own fur-babies (if I said they weren’t spoilt, I would be a liar.) I hope that in some way that I have created more awareness of the organization, the joy of volunteering and how pets and charities can help people during their more difficult times.

Here are three cheers for Cats, Writing and Charities: Hip Hip! Hooray!