I currently live in Alicante, Spain with my five cats, dog and fish. In my garden I have around twenty adult cats and around twenty kittens who I am trying to rehome! I have a YouTube channel and an Instagram page where I post videos and pictures of all the cats I encounter!
I have lived with cats since I was 7 years old, but was in love with them even before then. At 7 years old, we adopted Tiger. My brother and I paid £2.50 each for him and he came to live with us. He was only 6 weeks old and I remember him sleeping on me for what felt like hours when we arrived home! A few months after, along came Stripey and they lived with us (somewhat happily!) until Stripey died at 14 years old from cancer. A few months later, Tabitha and Crystal arrived from Cat’s Protection (they cost me a bit more than £2.50 though!) and they moved to Spain with me in 2015. Unfortunately, Tiger died in October 2015, a week before he was supposed to join us for his retirement in the sunshine!
Along came my dog Dingo in 2016 and then it was all quiet until 2018… I was fostering a pregnant mother for a local animal charity and went down one day to find a kitten freezing cold and almost dead on the tiles! I picked her up and put her down my top to warm her up and luckily she survived. I was going through some things in my life then and felt like we “saved” each other so she was named Angel and moved in with us. The next year I was on break time in my Spanish lessons when someone said there was a kitten outside on a bench. Obviously I had to go outside and look and the poor thing was covered in fleas, eyes half closed from infection and a bad nose. I took him home and cleaned him up, took him to the vet and tried to rehome him. Nobody wanted him so Nemo, as he was now known, became cat number four! The year after, a cat in the garden had babies and she was too young to be a mother, she left them all over the garden and was not interested in them at all, so I ended up bottle feeding them. One of them, Thomas, had the worst eye infection I have ever seen The vet thought he might even lose his eyes at some point. Luckily, he didn’t but he is blind. I rehomed him, as well as his siblings in October 2022. A couple of months later, browing Facebook, I saw an advert trying to rehome him! Quickly my sister in law messaged the woman and I collected him back from her and he became cat number 5 in December 2022!
Having cats from such a young age has given me confidence with them and I feel I can read them and understand them quite well. In fact, I remember when I was around 10 years old, taking Tiger to the vet and the vet being unable to look in his mouth so telling me to keep checking and if there is a problem bring him in! I wanted to be a vet when I was younger, but I was bitten by a dog which made me scared of dogs. Obviously, a good amount of animals seen in a small animal practice are dogs, so it put me off! I went on to study Primary Teaching at university and then a Master’s degree in Psychology and Education. I then moved to Spain to run a cat hotel.
I have studied a short course in Feline Behaviour and I am currently studying for my Advanced Diploma in Feline Behaviour.which will allow me to work as a cat behaviour consultant, should I pass!
I have had years of experience in taking care of cats and volunteered with the RSPCA as a cat socialiser and also did some work experience as a veterinary nurse in the UK.