Kattaddorra responds to preset questions about how she cares for her cats….
Q. Where do you live? Which country and do you live in or out of town?
A. We live in the North East of England in a small town, right on the edge of a housing estate.
Q. Do you live alone or with a family? If so how many people are there in the family?
A. We are sisters who live together since Barbara was widowed, she works in funeralcare and I’m retired.
Q. How many cats do you live with? What is his name or what are their names?
A. We share our home with our two cats Walter and Jozef. Walter will be 12 in July and Jozef will be 12 in August.
Q. What sort of cats are they (moggie or purebred?)?
A. Both are DSH black and white neutered toms
Q. What sort of home do you live in?
A. Our home is semi detached with a large garden at the back, there are very tall trees behind the back fence and a path for walking, then an embankment the other side of the path.
Q. Does your cat go out and if so how the situation managed?
A. Yes our cats go out, usually via the window at the back of our living room and they come back to that window when they want to come in. They are kept in after dark and when no one is going to be home. They learned this routine from being kittens. They sit in the garden quite
often, they also go over the path to the embankment which is behind trees and has a high fence but space for cats to go under, it’s a cats safe paradise with trees and scrub and lots of mice to hunt.
They have little wooden huts in the garden which Barbara’s late husband John made for when it rains and they still want to be out in the fresh air, they also have a Catnasium with four levels leading to their ‘sun roof’
Q. What are the dangers to your cat?
A. As we live in a cul de sac the traffic can’t pass through here and the residents drive carefully but if our cats are out the front of our house one of us always watches over them just incase a stranger or a delivery man comes flying along thinking there is a through road.
Q. Do you have access to a veterinarian? If so, how good is she?
A. Our vets practice is 3 miles away, we have our favourite female vet, some of the other female vets are good too although we are not keen on the vet who the practice belongs to because we were informed that he expects his staff to meet targets of the number of tests done. It’s sad that many vets practices are more about making money through probably unnecessary tests than doing what is best for the client’s pet.
Q. What food do you feed your cat?
A. A variety of good makes of cat food and a few biscuits for nibbling on.
Q. Does your cat use a cat litter toilet or go outside to the toilet? What sort of litter is it?
A. Our cats have a patch of earth dug over in our garden for toileting, they do have a litter tray upstairs and downstairs for emergencies but they are very rarely used so we just use a basic litter.
P.S. from Michael
This is one of the world cat owner interviews that I would like to see. You can read about the idea on this page. Could you do one please? If so please use the form on the home page or contact me.
Loved the interview especially the pictures, its clear to see that Ruth is an experienced cat owner and does whatever it takes to enrich Jozef and Walts lives yet at the same time keeping them safe which is just so important 🙂
Thanks Rose, yes John was a good man who loved cats and it’s very sad he has been gone 10 years now. He would have enjoyed PoC very much.
I absolutely love this interview and the pictures too especially of John with baby Walter,he looks such a lovely man only the good die young.
This is a very comprehensive and charming look at the world of the domestic cat and their caretakers in England.
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone, Ruth and I do have a happy set-up here, we’re lucky to have each other and our lovely boys. This morning the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the boys are going about their business outside, on days like this life feels good.
As a cat owner from one of the world’s densest populated city’s Mumbai(Bombay), this pleasant poster-book countryside cottage of Ruth reminds me of the distant countryside resorts that we Mumbaikars normally go on weekends for a experiencing the forest life and wilderness.First time came across the “Castnasium” built for cats.Remember visiting “Kew Gardens” and admiring the beautiful British cottages in that locality, the “British Cottage” being a symbol of English living.Thanks for an excellent peep into your cats and your typical British home.
Thanks Rudolph, the Catnasium was designed and made by John, Barbara’s late husband who was a carpenter before he became disabled. He was a wonderful gentle kind man who loved cats, we were so sad to lose him at only 57 years old. He taught Barbara a lot of DIY so we can now manage most things that need doing around the house and garden, she designed the cat run we once built for our ex neighbour. Women can do these things if we try.
County Durham is a beautiful part of England, we are lucky to have a sort of town and country mixture. Further into the estate we live on isn’t so nice, they do have gardens but not as private as ours and more roads near them, we could hardly believe our luck to find this cat friendly place 14 years ago.
I always enjoy reading about your cats and country too, it’s interesting to learn how other PoC visitors and their cats live.