The following story has been shared with us by Chris, an ongoing supporter of CCR who adopted Matt (now Oscar!) from us just before Christmas last year. Thanks Chris!

When my daughter moved out of home and took her two lovely dogs (my grandogs!) with her last year, it was just me and my nine-year-old white moggy Lolly (who looks much younger than her years). I decided that I would get another cat, and like all the pets I have had over the years, as always; from a shelter. Being a great animal supporter all my life, I was well aware of the increasingly difficult time cats were having in rehoming.

So last October/November when I saw in the local paper a new cat shelter being formed in Cheltenham by a local hero namely Natasha, I was motivated. I knew this would be a challenge as Lolly has been an only cat for some time (queen of the house) but I was determined to help another moggy out. It took me ages to decide who to pick as I loved them all. After a few mistrials with other felines I finally decided on Matt (now called Oscar). He was very frightened of everything, his front teeth gone, a bite out of his ear, but I could see he was a handsome gentleman.

The first two weeks were difficult. Lolly was really put out and she is feisty by personality so she made it clear, this was her pad. There was lots of hissing and ugly looks of disapproval and I was worried as it looked as though she was never going to let up and be ‘nice’ to Oscar, in fact I wondered if I had made a mistake in thinking that it would work out.

But I persisted and I was determined to give this boy a home and after buying a few things including a Feliway diffuser (which really helped), after the fourth week things started to calm down and Lolly realised that Oscar was here to stay. Things were still prickly with Lolly and it was evident that Oscar had not been an outside boy for some time. But the weeks passed and eventually Oscar cautiously followed Lolly out the back garden to see what she got up to.

And every day since, Oscar has continued lose his fear (almost) and trusts the routine and is actually playing with Lolly (when she’s in a good mood), loving his regular meals, getting his fur brushed, playing ball and tunnel, he even had a gentle bath during the heatwave (as Lolly did too) and on one occasion I saw the two of them have a kiss, my heart melted. What a beautiful sight.

Oscar is a true gentleman, very loving, very accepting and a good talker – just what Lolly needs!