Sleepy Cat
In 2002, a few months after getting our first dog Micky and a few months before Samuel was born, we decided to expand the menagerie with two cats.
Gina and Mia were kittens born to a friend's cat and we took them on. Minka stayed with us a for a year before heading off to pastures new. We actually found her two years later, but she was quite happy in her new place.
Gina stayed with us until we moved to Australia, when we made the difficult decision to re-home her rather than migrate her to Australia. We knew we were moving to an area where cats are not allowed out, for good reason - they are lethal to the native wildlife, which is under enough pressure as it is. We feared that confining her to indoors, when she was used to roaming the countryside around Attleborough would be unfair and stressful for her.
She was a strong-willed cat (is there another type?) and confident. I used to marvel at her athleticism and ability to walk along the garage roof, then the high back wall. I suppose I was slightly envious of the different persectives she would get on the world.
As I have been scanning, I have found a few pics of them as kittens, which reminded me of some portraits I did of Gina in her adulthood, on my first Canon DSLR. I've chosen one of these as it is probably my favourite.
Given Minka and Gina would be twenty years old now, I expect they are long deceased. I hope Gina's new home worked out as well for her as Minka's seemed to have done, but I will always carry a little guilt for re-homing.
Sleepy Cat
In 2002, a few months after getting our first dog Micky and a few months before Samuel was born, we decided to expand the menagerie with two cats.
Gina and Mia were kittens born to a friend's cat and we took them on. Minka stayed with us a for a year before heading off to pastures new. We actually found her two years later, but she was quite happy in her new place.
Gina stayed with us until we moved to Australia, when we made the difficult decision to re-home her rather than migrate her to Australia. We knew we were moving to an area where cats are not allowed out, for good reason - they are lethal to the native wildlife, which is under enough pressure as it is. We feared that confining her to indoors, when she was used to roaming the countryside around Attleborough would be unfair and stressful for her.
She was a strong-willed cat (is there another type?) and confident. I used to marvel at her athleticism and ability to walk along the garage roof, then the high back wall. I suppose I was slightly envious of the different persectives she would get on the world.
As I have been scanning, I have found a few pics of them as kittens, which reminded me of some portraits I did of Gina in her adulthood, on my first Canon DSLR. I've chosen one of these as it is probably my favourite.
Given Minka and Gina would be twenty years old now, I expect they are long deceased. I hope Gina's new home worked out as well for her as Minka's seemed to have done, but I will always carry a little guilt for re-homing.