Cat sitting

You guys, I love cats. So imagine my joy when my girlfriend introduced me to the most amazing website ever: catinaflat.co.uk. Once you sign up and prove yourself trustworthy (usually a DBS, and a phone call from the people running it, among other documentation), people in your neighbourhood can request that you take care of their cat while they're away. This can be anything from one day to... I don't know, however long the person is away for. And you get a bit of money for doing it, too!

My first opportunity to cat sit came about three months after I had signed up to the website and had lost all hope of ever being trusted with a cat. The owner was going away for two days and had chosen me (me!) to take care of her cats while she and her husband were gone.

Sorry, cats? Plural?

Yes. She had three. Clarice, Cleo and Willow.

The expectations of a cat-sitter is to make one or two one-hour(ish) visits daily (depending on the owner) to feed, clean up after, and play with the cat or cats in the flat. It's also nice if you take loads of pictures to send to the owner, so they can be assured their kitties are still happy and healthy. I gladly took dozens of cute cat photos, some of which I'm going to share with you now. I really loved those first two days of cat sitting, getting to know the three lovely cats under my care and figuring out the differences in their personalities.

The black-and-white cat, Clarice, and the tortoiseshell one, Willow, were friendly and curious, very open to having human interaction. We had lots of fun hanging out in their flat, and Willow, who was the youngest, really warmed up to me by the second day. It was really sad to say goodbye to her but hopefully their owners choose me to cat-sit them again soon!

"Hello, human!"

"Why is she always pointing that rectangle at us?"

The black one - Cleo - having spent 6 months on the streets (according to her owner), just wasn't interested in me. At all.

"Oi, do you mind?"

Ah well, you can't have everything.

"Okay, fine: take one good photo
of me if you must, but then
leave me alone, m'kay?"

At the end of the weekend when I told them I was going, Clarice and Willow decided to block my exit with their cuteness (and curiosity about my bicycle). While Cleo...

...just didn't care.

"Leave then."