From old to young: welcoming a new pet after a loss

Rehoming another cat after a loss can be a difficult decision. Knowing the right time to re-open your heart and your home is something only you can decide.

Diane, mum of Co-op Insurance Content Advisor Vicky Lowry, shares her experience of rescuing 2 younger cats after the passing of her elderly pair, as well as how she has adapted to living with them.

Harry and Boo

Cats have always been part of my family, or so it seems. I was devastated when my 2 old cats died within 9 months of each other.

Boo’s passing was a huge shock at the age of 15 with no prior illness or health concerns, while Harry followed less than a year later at the amazing age of 24.

I found the shift to a cat-less house particularly difficult. They had always been part of our family and their absence seemed even more profound during the pandemic, when I was working from home and spending such a large amount of time within the same 4 walls.

The decision to rehome

Barely a month after Harry had died, I started to look at cats on the Cats Protection website. I decided that we had to have 2 as we had room for them in our house and our hearts.

I spotted a lovely grey tabby and smaller black cat with bright green eyes who needed to be re-homed as a pair. Their names were Bambi and Thumper. I completed a form to request them with information about us, our house and experience with cats.

Before I knew it, I was having a telephone interview with Warrington Cats Protection and breaking the news to my husband about the new additions to our household. Luckily, he was in agreement and fell in love with them very quickly.

We changed their names to Tess and Clawdia in honour of Strictly Come Dancing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, with Clawdia inspired by her namesake’s famous black shiny hair.

Elderly cats to younger ones

The change from elderly cats to younger ones was huge. Clawdia disappeared as soon as we arrived home and emerged from various hiding places throughout the first few days.

In contrast, Tess was immediately at home, sitting on our sofa and laps without too much persuasion. Clawdia’s shyness lasted a few days until she emerged for some food, which we left by a chair to tempt her.

We had to keep them in the house for 3 weeks, so locked the cat flap and put a note on the back door as a reminder. As soon as they could go out, they loved it.

Now they've settled in

Nowadays, Clawdia loves to scramble over the fence into next door’s garden and regularly present us with worms and leaves. Worms are luckily much easier to catch and put back in the garden than the tiny mice that Boo used to bring in!

Tess is also good at catching leaves, and they both love running around in the garden and sitting in the spring sunshine. They are much livelier than their predecessors and have mad half hours charging around the house, up and downstairs.

It’s good to have company while I’m working too as both cats like to relax with me. It can be embarrassing, however, when a Teams meeting is interrupted by one of them (usually Tess) walking past on the keyboard.

I’m sat writing this with Tess on my knee! Clawdia loves sitting on my knees now too. Most nights, we sit and watch TV with a cat curled up cosily.

It’s been an adventure to re-home 2 cats, but we love the additions to our household and wouldn’t be without them, despite the worms and leaves!