From Stefanie
Hi,
We adopted our cat Nala when we heard that people were taking care of her after she ran away due to living in a house not suited for cats and was living on the streets (afraid of the people’s toddler, that was handling her the wrong way…). Those people felt sorry for her, fed her and started looking for a home or they would take her to a shelter where she would eventually have been put down…
We visited those people to see if there was a click, and we instantly fell in love with her 🙂
She’s our little girl, and I do feel like she is happy with us too 🙂 She’s allowed into the garden (and a vegetable garden that lies behind our house) when we are home, but comes when we call her and also likes to sleep on the terrace, near me as I am her human. I say it this way, because even when she has come to accept my boyfriend, she seems to tend to me more (I think she is afraid of men in general, it took him some time to gain her trust), she will also allow me to pick her up but prefers him not to etc…
Nala
From neighbours and when at the vet, we’ve heard the question ‘what breed is she’ very often. Unfortunately, as we adopted/rescued her quasi from the street, we don’t know. It’s pretty obvious that she’s not a pure breed as she is tabby grey with dots (not sure if this is the correct way to say it) but also has some ‘brownish’ very small areas here and there.
However her face does seem very ‘noble’, she is quite a slim kitty, with quite a long body and ears- I take a lot of pictures of her and sometimes I wonder if I did something wrong, but those really are her ears lol!
I suppose she may be a mix of two breeds, or a breed and a non breed, but unfortunately my knowledge is quite ‘small’ in that area. Some people have said there is something of an Abyssinian in there but I don’t know…
If I attach some pictures, hopefully you can help me out (or say that there’s no breed at all in there, which is fine too!).
Her characteristics are: she likes to pretend she likes being on her own, but then regularly comes over and talks to me (especially to make clear what she wants!), and jumps on the sofa to sleep in between my legs. She loves to sit in the bath tub, her morning ritual is that I open the tap slightly and while I brush my teeth, she plays with the water or drinks it.
She loves it when we play with a little ball or a laser pointer, and at night when we go to bed and she still wants to play, we can hear her playing with her toys by herself. She often brings in a little mouse or bird and expects us to play with it as well 🙂
When I call her name or say there’s cookies involved, she’s usually pretty fast to run inside when she’s in the garden!
She’s really smart when she wants to, I’ve been having some problems with my back and to pet or feed her I’ve let her jump on a small table as I can’t duck and now when she wants me to pet her, she jumps on the small table and looks at me 😀
If the pictures aren’t clear or I could help with more info, please let me know — and thanks a lot for your time!
And here another one of her sleeping 🙂
By the way, just for info, I live in Belgium 🙂
Hi Stephanie. Here is your second picture. It was a damaged file so did not upload first time:
hello everybody,
Thanks a lot of the nice comments! I always thought my little girl was beautiful, it fills my mother’s (ahem) heart with pride that it’s not just me thinking so 😉
I suppose we’ll never know what breeds she has in her, but it’s true that I prefer non-purebred cats, as indeed their immune system is better and also I prefered to rescue a cat than to buy one that was bred purely for the profit (or at least that’s what you hear a lot).
I’ll attach a picture of her sleeping 🙂
This is a really nice photo. Pretty cat. I am pleased that you live in Belgium because I like to hear from people from parts of the world other than the USA and UK.
Are you Belgium? If you are you write bloody good English 😉
I am indeed Belgian, thanks 🙂
Thought I would let you know because I imagined most people that come here would be from England or America 😉
Sorry I mispelled “Belgian”. Silly me. You are better at English than me 😉
Yes, most visitors are American and English. We also have a good number from India.
I really appreciate you visiting. Perhaps one day you might consider doing an article about Belgium cats.
I love the two dots above her mouth and the heart!!! I would love to have tile that matches her grey/grey-blue splotch tabby markings. Very fetching colors. She is not a pure bred, Michael got it right on the classic tabby. Personally, I prefer non purebreds. They have stronger immune systems and less chance of having genetic disorders. Also (as someone pointed out here I believe) they are natures version of the cat. Aren’t they the true cats? We pick a breed and we keep it pure, but it stagnates in a way. The ‘street cat’ (as I think of them) have a chance to grow based on environment, etc. Plus she is just beautiful. Please share more pix!
Nala is beautiful and sounds very clever too, I loved reading about her, I’m so glad you rescued her.
P.S. You can upload more pictures in a comment. You will see the guide on going it below the comment box. I only one picture in the media folder and used that for the post.
Hi Stephanie, Thanks for writing about your cat Nala. Nice story. I enjoyed reading about Nala.
She is a random bred cat. She is a blotched (also called “classic”) brown tabby cat. Very nice pattern (heart shaped in the bulls-eye centre).
Her ears are larger than average. Sweet face.
Random bred cats are a breed mashup. Purebred cats are also a breed mashup. That sounds crazy but I wrote about that on this page.
The DNA of the original cat breeds, say Siamese cats from Siam (Thailand) or British Short hairs from England has spread far and wide and is found in many random bred cats.
So, I say that Nala will have some characteristics of some purebred cats (the large ears for example) but is random bred.
The best part of the story is your obvious love for her and the care you give her which comes across in your post.