Remarkably, during the record-setting fierce temperatures last week in the UK when parts of the country suffered 40.3°C temperatures, there were wildfires in the country. These were fires started in fields which rapidly spread to houses, quickly burning them down and destroying all the contents. In Britain we are used to looking at television reports of places like California or Australia where wildfires spread to properties and destroy them. It is something that happens somewhere else to British people but now it is happening to us and it is shocking.
It happened to a couple, Trudi and David Calver who live in Ashmanhaugh, Norfolk. Their home was destroyed on Tuesday. They have two cats. Mrs Calver believed that she had lost both of them but on Wednesday, UK Power Networks staff came across one of her cats, Treasure, but the other is still missing.
Mrs Calver said that miracles really do happen and that, “I really don’t care about the possessions – my cats were the thing that really got me the most – but I’ve got one.”
She doesn’t mind losing everything as long as she has, at least, one of her two cats. I can understand that. And I hope the other turns up. Possessions are just possessions. They can be replaced but losing a cat is losing a family member and it hurts for a very long time if you have a good relationship.
In the UK, the ground is still scorched with no sign of rain in the south-east on the horizon. It’s a drought and the way things are going I can foresee restrictions on water usage being introduced. Weather forecasters predict another heatwave in August.
We will have to get used to wildfires, the kind that we see in other countries and which are now affecting damp Britain. Surely this is global warming in action?
The little story of Mrs Calver highlights kind of precious bond that exists between many cat caregivers and their cat companion. It is a relationship which is above pretty much everything else in many homes. In many homes – and I’m not suggesting that this is the case with Mrs Calver – it can be more important than the relationship that a woman has with her husband!
Below are some more articles on the human-cat relationship.
