One For the Cat Mums | International Cat Day 2021

To all the people thinking “for fuck sake, she’s written ANOTHER post about her cat,” you’re not going to like this. This coming Sunday the 8th August is International Cat Day, so I thought I’d share a little something in honour of the occasion. A post about the little tiger in my house with many names – Tills. Tilly Tots. Toots. Squish. Baby Squish. Squishems. Bunny. Bun-Bun. Wiggles. Wiggly-Woo. Pudge. Baby Girl. Muffin. Chicken. Chicka. Floof. Floofer. Floofy-Bum. Kit-Kat. Kit-Kat Chunky. Or, as you may know her, Tilly.

I’ve written posts about Tilly before, and if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you probably will have read them, so I apologise if there’s any repetition in this post! I’ve gone through some of my favourite photos from over the years and looked at the memories that come with them. Some of these photos you may have seen before, others I’ll be sharing for the first time. So, grab your fur-babies and settle in!

Tilly had only been with us for a couple of weeks when this was taken. It’s one of my favourite photos because it shows how tiny she is – now, when she stretches out across the sofa, she takes up a good third of it rather than just a small section. She loved curling up and napping on this blanket – I still have it somewhere, but now she’s happy just snuggling into her favourite cushion for a nap!

I spoiled Tilly a hell of a lot for her first Christmas (I still do now to be honest), but her favourite thing out of the mound of toys I bought her was Fishy. An orange catnip fish with a crinkly tail and a jingly ball at the end. This is one of many pictures of her playing with Fishy, and I was ridden with guilt when I accidentally stepped on it and cracked the ball in the tail. As a result of said guilt, I drove straight down to Pets at Home and bought her a handful of new toys, including her new favourite (and still is to this day), Owl.

This is one of the moments where I knew Tilly had my back. In June 2014, I was struck with an illness that made me extremely tired, feverish, nauseous, and gave me severe stomach pains. 2 weeks and several tests later, it turned out to be food poisoning, but when this was taken, I had no idea. I took a few days off work because I felt so ill, and spent most of it on the sofa drifting in and out of sleep. This little one never left my side – she was curled up  on my lap for most of the time, but on that very first day she came up close to me and snuggled up on my pillow with me. Cats always know when you’re not well, and for that I am incredibly grateful to them.

This is one of my favourite Tilly pictures. Liam bought a new camera a few months before the wedding so we had something to take decent pictures with alongside the professional photos, and it was the perfect opportunity to test out my budding career as a pet photographer. Tilly didn’t mind one bit when it came to being a model.

You may recognise this photo! One of my favourite photos of me and Tilly, this was taken on mine and Liam’s first wedding anniversary before we went out for dinner. I love how she posed for the picture! So much so that this photo was the first choice when it came to getting my blog logo redesigned (I would highly recommend Olivia Lucie Blake if you’re in need of a new logo or just some gorgeous digital artwork!).

I think it’s obvious that Tilly’s quite the fan of modelling. This photo was taken a few months later, on Christmas Day. It’s become a bit of a tradition that we take a family photo every year – although some years she’s not so keen!

Another snapshot of how Tilly always has my back – this was New Year’s Day 2017, and I was deathly hungover. So much so that I instantly fell asleep on the sofa as soon as we got home from Liam’s parents where we’d stayed the night before. Tilly just sat there looking bright eyed and bushy tailed as usual.

Skipping ahead to 2019, we come to one of my all time favourite photos of my girl. I’ve mentioned before that my friend Cheryl came over to take some photos of her, and BBG WORKED IT. Cheryl will tell me that I don’t need to tag her each time, but I’m going to ignore her and say if you want to see some beautiful photos, check out her Instagram page, Chiggs Photography and you’ll see just how goddamn talented she is!

2020 was an absolute piece of crap for everyone, but this time last year, we had some good news for a change. August 2020 was when we finally were able to move into our house – the house we just started the process of buying when we first went into lockdown. Where Tilly’s a house cat, I wasn’t too worried about her having to get used to a new area, but I was still worried about how she’d take in the new surroundings in general. I needn’t have worried. She sat in her bed at the old house for the whole morning and didn’t get in the way, and when we brought her to the new house, after a bit of meowing, she soon got settled in and was ready for bed as usual. Now, she loves having the bay window to sit in, napping on the new sofa and she even goes out into the garden.

Finally, we come to October 2020. Another gorgeous photo taken by Cheryl. This is yet another of my favourites and I’m still meaning to get it printed and framed. It signifies everything I love about my girl: the fact she will literally pose whenever you want her to, the fact she’s pudgy and fluffy, her gorgeous green eyes, and her beautiful tabby-cat markings. She turns 8 this month and on the 4th November we’ll have had her in our lives for 8 years. 8 years of having her greet us when we come in the door, listening to her get incredibly sassy while she waits for her breakfast, hearing the meow that tells us she’s bringing us one of her toys in her mouth, having her steal your seat if you get up for more than 3 seconds, and most recently, meowing for attention whenever I’m on a Zoom call with work.

Those who aren’t animal people won’t understand, but I don’t care what anyone says – Tilly is more than just a cat. She makes me laugh, she makes me feel calm, and most importantly, she brings a smile to my face every single day, no matter what. She’s my baby, and she is part of our family. I’m incredibly grateful that she chose us to be her humans. 

Love to all the cat parents and their fur-babies on International Cat Day x