getting a cat

A few years ago I decided that I would quite like to get a cat. Growing up we always had cats, and they have long been my favourite animal. Once I had my own place I thought it would be nice to get a cat, but my long suffering boyfriend had other ideas. After lengthy negotiations I got two pet rats, which wasn't quite the outcome I was after, but it was fun for a while. However as most of you will know rats are not particularly renowned for their longevity and Fetish and Dave Angelmouse were no exception and after a couple of years I was a lady with no pets again. I briefly flirted with the idea of keeping fancy fish and set up a tropical tank in an old gas measuring jar from an old chemistry lab. I started off with a lovely tank full of interesting fish, but one of them, Horace, was a bit of a psycho killer type and before long I just had the one fish. He resisted any attempts to add more fish to the tank by eating them. After a while I was desperate to get a cat, there was a little lad across the road who was desperate for a fancy fish but whose parents could not afford the start-up costs and after some careful negotiations my boyfriend finally relented and said I could get a rescue cat. Result!


There were of course some provisos - the cat would be my responsibility. That meant I would cover all associated costs for food, litter, toys and veterinary bills and look after the cat. I soon learned that a cat, when being lovely and affectionate would be "our cat" but the moment it did something wrong, like shredding the newly papered wall, or vomiting on the bed it would be my cat without question.
Well, I could live with all that so off we trundled one afternoon to the local shelter.


I had explained to the warden that I was in a position to take a "problem cat", one that was old or fat or that hated children as it would not be a problem for me. The warden asked if I would consider taking two cats, that needed housing together. "Of course" I replied, while boyfriend sputtered slightly.
The shelter we went to was actually a large old house, with each room shared by several cats. The first room we went into I spied a beautiful semi long haired cat lounging in the corner. He was an apricot birman cross with huge blue eyes and it was love at first sight. However he didn't look like he would have any trouble finding a home so I carried on and met all the other cats. He stayed on my mind though and at the end of the tour I asked to go back and see him again. When we entered the room I went to see him and my boyfriend, resigned to his fate sat on the floor in the middle of the room, where he was joined by an overweight, raggedy looking old tomcat with torn ears, dandruff and the grumpiest face you have ever seen on a feline.
"ah" explained the warden "he is actually the brother of the birman cross, believe it or not. I am amazed he came to see you though, he usually just hides or attacks anyone who comes in."
Well, I was sold, especially when he told me they had been here months already as nobody was prepared to take them both.
I agreed to come back the next day ready to take them home.


we duly returned the next day with two carry cases and that was where we hit the first problem - not only were these cats hugely overweight they were also pretty big anyway, so we ended up driving them home with them wearing, rather than sitting in their boxes. And they howled, oh they howled all the way home. So much so that I jokingly said "it's like having 2 demons in the car. I didn't realise we had just adopted Damien and Lucifer" the names stuck, and although we thought about changing them we soon decided that their new names suited them well.