It's taken me a while to warm to the idea. In fact, I hadn't even warmed to the idea on the journey to or arrival at the Cat Rescue Center on Sunday.
I looked in a few cages, peered at a few cats and stroked the ones that looked least likely to take my hand off.
The boyfriend (the instigator of the adoption) loves cats. He has spent weeks trying to convince me that cats are a fantastic pets. I don't really doubt that they are but I'd just like them to be a bit more... like dogs! That's been my stubborn answer to all his questions too.
Q - "What's your favourite breed of cat?"
A - "A dog."
Not very helpful I know but, try as I might, I just couldn't get excited by the idea of a cat.
A friendly volunteer introduced us to one cat after another. About 10 in total.
One caught the boyfriend's eye. A nine year old black male named William who's owner had gone into residential care and was no longer able to look after him. He had only been at the center a day. He was friendly and enjoyed us fussing over him. I felt sorry for him. He was obviously well looked after for the past 9 years and, although the rescue center is lovely, he was probably a little confused as to why he had suddenly found himself in a cage. The boyfriend was smitten.
We were just being told that we had seen all the cats available when a second volunteer mentioned that there were two kittens in the kitten house that would be ready for adoption by next weekend. We were shown in to the kitten house and that's when it happened! I saw Simon. An eight month old white kittencat with black patches and the biggest yawn I've ever seen. I gave him a stroke and I even held him. He was happy to be picked up and was nosily looking over my shoulder at everything that was going on.
He was nothing like a dog. He was very much a cat but I loved him. He was friendly, inquisitive and cute. That threw a spanner in the works!
The boyfriend likes William and I, despite myself, am won over by Simon.
We didn't come away with a cat. We went for lunch and talked about nothing else! Each one of us trying to convince the other that the cat we favoured was the one for us.
We've discussed and discussed it since we left the rescue center. We are still undecided but we are planning to go back next Sunday if not before. Maybe by then I'll have talked the boyfriend into loving Simon or maybe he'll have persuaded me that William needs us. Maybe they will both have gone to new homes already.
I don't know if we'll end up adopting Simon (or William) but I do know that whatever cat we get it will be Simon that helped me love it.
I think I might be a cat convert.
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