Louisa Shorney

find me on instagram.com/kitty.in.a.van

I thought that I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself. I’m Cherry, Louisa’s familiar. I originally came from California, where myself and my sister had been cast out into the desert and left to fend for ourselves. At 8 weeks old we were lucky enough to be found up a tree and taken to an animal rescue centre. And that is where my tale begins, where through a series of serendipitous meetings and connections, it arrives at where I am today.

In the rescue centre we were adopted by Alice, she was over from England with her partner James, who was working in Los Angeles. They were from a band that was all the rave in the naughties as I understand. You see I’m not just any old cat. As Alice was unable to get a ‘green card’ she volunteered in the rescue centre. Now when it came to leave my native land of America Alice couldn’t possibly leave me behind, nor my sister Apple. So we were dosed up with nasty needles and flown to Paris. Not in the hold of course, we had our own seats.

From Paris we were driven to Alice’s home in Berkhamsted, it was from there that things spiralled downwards for me. Over the next five years I was moved from one home to another, sometimes with my sister, sometimes with out, sometimes to other cats homes, sometimes with dogs, sometimes with Alice, sometimes without. By the time we settled down to one home, one lot of cats and one lot of humans, my head was was all over the place and my anxiety had peaked through the roof long before we got there. I don’t mind telling you, I was in a pickle, showing every stress symptom in the book. And then she went and had a baby and I was banished out of the house.

We had all reached the end of our tethers and I do believe that the end of the road was on the cards for me, but don’t tell anyone I know that. It seems that luck has a habit of shining on me when the chips are down. Just when all hope was lost, Alice’s half sister stepped forward and said that her best friend was prepared to give a kitty on the edge of extinction a second chance. Now I don’t mind telling you, when they put me in that travel box and strapped it into the back of the car I thought that was it, I was off to have that final injection, driven to my forever sleep. After an hour with out stopping I stopped crying as I realised that this was not the case, where we were going or what was going to happen when we got there I had no know way of knowing, but at least it wasn’t that.

The moment she came to the car and opened the door I knew. I knew it when she put her fingers through the caged door, gently carried the basket and soothed me with her voice. I knew from her scent and the timbre of her weave that this was my familiar. That I was hers and she was mine and this was my forever more.

I settled in immediately, I had so obviously found my forever home, somewhere that I could rest at last and my trauma coil unwind. Ha, although I must say that the fresh catmint helped enormously. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our ups and downs over the last year and a half, and my trauma responses are still triggered from time to time. But I do believe that I can fully trust her now, that she will not abandon me, discard me, nor leave me behind. Although I can not help but fret when she has to go away with out me, I cope because I know that I am always on her mind.

Now, I am a very chatty cat and I like to be engaged, my human is really quite sensible for a human and seems to be able to understand my chat and to a degree she can chat with me back. I know that she does not understand me as well as I understand her, but then I don’t think that she knows her own feelings as well as I do and it can be quite upsetting when I can’t seem to get through. She gets there in the end though so I am satisfied with that, I am so much luckier in that than most of my kind.

We do a lot together, my familiar and I, in the kitchen or the garden, when she’s painting and creating, even the drumming I don’t mind. She needs some supervision, I must check that she’s doing it right and sometimes I need to remind her that she needs to cook her diner so that I can settle down for the night. Her presence is my anchor, my heaven is by her side.

So now that the van is fixed and ready for the road, our real adventures can begin. I’ve had a few rides in it, it’s a little bit scary at times but I know I’ll find my feet and get used to it. We’ve had our first night together in there, even if it was only on the drive. I can’t wait to go away properly and investigate the world at large with my familiar by my side. So watch this space for up dates as I will share my travels with you, it’ll be nice to have you along for the ride.