Storytelling
Life In The Catio/Patio. Two Spoiled Cats And A Little Old Lady.
This was supposed to be a short story about cat beds and towers. 😁😁
It’s somehow taken on a life of its own.
There will be several chapters, I suspect. 😉😉
Why? I have no idea.
Why are we so enthralled with keeping our cats happy and entertained and comfortable? I have no idea but they hold us in thrall.
When I found this tiny, micro-bleeding-scopic one bedroom unit in a retirement village, I was two weeks from the end of my lease. With nowhere to go. And a cat.
It was an entirely fortuitous email through a website and a follow-up phone call 20 minutes later which secured it for me. Well, not really. It was sheer persistence. My name was not unfamiliar to them. 😉😉
There were hoops to jump through, of course. But I leapt through them like a gazelle. Like a tiger 🐅 in a circus through a ring of fire 🔥 Nothing was stopping me.
Getting on the list.
Having already made the “list” for emergency housing with the Government (only 14,000 in front of me) and the local Government list (about 300 already ahead of me), I was already pre-qualified.
So, I came. With a cat 🐈 that I forgot to mention on my application. Whoops! Genuine oversight, though. Splinter and I are bonded at the hip.
Whoops? How did I miss that bit?
Once the paperwork arrived, and I actually read the lease, I phoned them and said “Oi, what’s this “no pets”? What about Splinter? He’s already approved for the Govt and City lists”
So, we paid the extra pet bond and he stayed. Of course.
Did I say it was small?
Two of us, in the tiniest little unit with nowhere for him to be outside, after having lived for 13 years with masses of grass to explore in a fully enclosed backyard, or a specially constructed cat garden with climbing poles and high shelves, or my mother’s roof!
But we have a home for life .
I am grateful beyond measure.
My gratitude is boundless, deep, and totally genuine. 🙏 To be in your 80th year and knowing you are securely housed (tsunamis aside) is a blessing for which I am grateful every day.
Every single day.
Every piece of furniture has to justify its footprint 👣
So much of my lovely furniture was flogged off on Facebook Marketplace. It wouldn’t fit here.
The hand-finished kitchen cabinet over which my Robbie painstakingly laboured, in spite of his emphysema, which came from our marital home.
A comfortable lounge to seat three people, replaced with two small radio chairs.
A tiny glass dining table returned to my children. (A fold-out plastic garden table has to suffice. ) My lovely teak and glass table Robbie and I bought to furnish our own dining room, thankfully, serves as the family dining table in my son’s home.
My storytelling business was closed down because there was no room for a desk, a top quality Kyosera full colour printer nor an office chair.
Did I say I am grateful 🙏? Indeed I am. I have a home.
And so does Splinter.
There’s a story to tell………on how we doubled the size of our living space, and built huge cat towers. Over and over again.
We will be back…………….
