We have had some adorable updates from Woody’s doting new owners, as well as this very moving reason as to why they were ready to adopt him:

‘Robert and I have always considered ourselves ‘dog people’, but after being adopted by a cat during lockdown we changed our minds on this. Yes, you read that right ‘a cat adopted us’! Lovely Teddy came to see us more and more until finally he decided he wanted to stay with us. We located Teddy’s owner, and he was happy for us to formally adopt him. Unfortunately while the adoption process was going on, we had to instruct our vet to put Teddy (who was 14) down as it turned out he had cancer of the jaw and was in quite a bit of pain. Whilst we only had 10 months with Teddy, it was such a wonderful time that we were set on getting another cat once we had sufficiently grieved for Teddy.

Six months on and I was busy checking all the animal rescue websites looking for a friendly cat that we could lavish our love and attention on. And then we saw Woody and were smitten.

So what’s it like living with Woody? Well as you can tell by the regular updates I send in, he is an absolute sweetheart and I don’t think there is day that goes by where he doesn’t make me smile (and mostly laugh out loud). In fact, I wonder why they don’t prescribe pets for combatting feeling blue and/or feeling lonely. We are, however very lucky with Woody in that he is a generally happy and friendly chap – and although he is not a lap cat, he is happy to hang out by us and doesn’t mind being stroked and sitting close to us. He also loves us to play with him (we recently discovered ping pong balls which are lots of fun and so cheap). In fact his favourite toys are the cheapest ones:

A large paper bag (he was rather disgruntled when we had to use his favourite one to send something back to Amazon)

Some boxes (we are hoping to create a cardboard fortress for him out of Beck’s boxes but Robert needs to drink more beer!)

A ping pong ball (30p from a local sports shop)

And his favourite – a homemade fishing stick (a length of bamboo from the garden with a piece of string and a dangling ribbon) – endless fun!

And if those weren’t benefits enough, I now have a bigger set of people that I chat to thanks to Woody (and Teddy) and I was surprised to discover just how many of us cat lovers there are ?

We also sleep with Dreamies or similar under our pillow (you could say for “sweet Dreamies ?) for when Woody comes into the bedroom very early in the morning. We find a couple entices him to settle down on the bed until we are ready to get up. You can also rattle the packet under the duvet and have him attacking it in a fun playful manner – we call that the duvet game’ ?

We were really touched to hear about Teddy and would also like to share a couple of our ‘Woody updates’ which are always a delight and show just how quickly Woody made himself at home:

‘We are already very much in love with Woody, even though he was a cheeky monkey last night and got into the Dreamies while we slept ?

It’s funny how we were warned that we could buy fancy beds but cats might prefer a cardboard box or an old mat.

I thought you would get a kick out of the attached photos which show this perfectly – the first looks like he has finished the Beck’s and is eyeing up the wine ? And the second looks like he is sleeping off the booze! ?

And the last one shows his preference for an old noodle box rather than his brand new beds. ?