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Love at First Meow

A tail of finding the one

By Ashleigh HolmesPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Love at First Meow
Photo by Jonas Vincent on Unsplash

Cats are the perfect pet. They are soft and cuddly, friendly for the most part and have been comfort during emotional times. My sisters and I grew up with cats from a young age, and my parents even now, still have 2 cats that we have had since birth.

We have the story in our family that we have only ever paid for one cat. Our first cat cost us only $5 from the breeder as she was the 'odd one out' had a tail amongst a litter of manx's (cats with no tails). She was white and tortoiseshell, but had a very temperamental nature. We loved her anyway and due to the time we brought her which was Christmas time it was apt that we named her 'Tinsel'.

Not long after she joined our family, I remember we were out driving and for some reason, we had pulled off on the side of the road in our 4wd Landcruiser Troopcarrier and as we were about to pull away again, we heard a 'meow' coming from what was then, bushland. This little cat in orange and black with a stripe down her nose, had spotted us, but continued to hide behind some grass. My dad went and investigated, she must've been scared, but let my dad pick her up, and when he showed us our hearts melted. She couldn't have been more than 6 weeks old and her nose was half orange and half black. There wasn't a lot of housing around at that time and we didn't want to think what would happen if we let her go, so we bundled her in the 4wd and off we drove.

She looked so hungry, but all we had on us was biscuits, so held them out and she ate them like she hadn't eaten in weeks. From then on we named her 'Biscuit' and she became our second cat in the family. This wasn’t to be our last cat, far from it in fact.

Our animal finding had another twist about 6 months later when while out in the bush my dad and uncle, came home with a black cat they had found wandering alone in the bush. Being the kind hearted man my dad is, he couldn’t leave her. She was this helpless black kitten and she became our third cat who we named ‘Kitten’. Over the time Biscuit and Kitten had many litters of kittens that we were always surrounded by cats wherever you look, but we were overjoyed. We would raise the kittens until about 6 weeks of age than would come the emotional part of giving them away to good homes. I hated being at home during those times, but as we grew older we knew we couldn’t keep them all, and as long as they went to good homes that was the main thing.

My most fond memory of animal rescue was the heartbreaking story of my dad coming across this box on the side of a road that wasn’t travelled much. I remember him telling us how he gingerly walked towards the box, unsure what to expect or fearing what he may find. The box held 6 x 2 week fragile kittens that had been abandoned. My dad may look tough, but he didn’t hesitate and hurried the box in the car and back home, hoping and praying that the babies would be ok. They were and we nurtured and brought them all back to health. Good thing my dad found them when he did.

I will always be a cat person, I like dogs too, but definitely have a soft spot for cats. Considering we have rescued so many cats in the past, I like to think they are drawn to us as they know we are good people.

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About the Creator

Ashleigh Holmes

Married mother of an adorable little girl who keeps me on my toes. I love art, craft, photography and food. I love to write about parenting and the trials I have struggled with, and also photography as an outlet for lifelong anxiety.

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