My Cats - Part 3: Sumi

Sumi is my third cat, and she joined the family by 'accident'. The husband has already put his foot down that 2 is the final number of cats we can have. For awhile after, I volunteered with the Hertfordshire Cat Protection to do home checks of potential adopters, and that's when I got involved in fostering.

Sumi at one year old

My Cats - Part 2: Yuki

Since Tom arrived into our family, we  enjoyed all of our time with him. He is very affectionate and you cannot tell that from his look as he looks like a proper tough Tom cat living on the rough streets of Glasgow and he has the scars to prove that. He loves nothing much then sleep next to you at night and purr super loud. We were living happily together for a year when I took him to the vets for his annual booster shots and that was when the vet asked if I was interested to see some kittens he had from one of his clients. Would I want to see some kittens??? Of course :p. How could anyone turned that proposal down? Lo and behold I came face to face with 3 beautiful kittens, 2 were white and one was a tabby. Then came the one million dollar question, would you like to have one? I said yes so fast you would have thought that someone had given me a million pounds. Anyway, the vet went on to say that another client had been given dips to which kitten she wanted (by the way, she wanted two), so which ever kitten was left, that one would be mine. I was too happy to have a kitten so I was not fussy, no one would say no to a kitten.

A week later, I was asked to return to the vet's to pick the kitten up. There she was, a pretty little white thing. She was so skinny, scared and super adorable. The amazing thing was when I got home, Tom totally embraced and took in this skinny little kitten as his own. He was like a daddy to her, sometimes pinning her down to groom her. They got along like house on fire. I named her 'Yuki' which is Japanese for snow, since it was obvious she is as white as snow :).  Everyone who meets her only asked if she is blind and/or deaf. Apparently a lot of white kittens are, but luck has it, she is neither. If you noticed from the photos, she has a little black tuft of fur on her head which disappeared as she grew older. Only cute thing is when you take a picture of her with flash, you will see that she has bi-coloured eyes - one red and one green :). You can read more about bi-coloured eye cats or odd-eyed cats here.

Beautiful Yuki

My Cats - Part 1 :Tom

Growing up, I have always wanted to have my home filled with animals. I was not picky about what animals, anything will do. I had Goldfishes - the body count was high!!! One dead fish every week. My parents refused to get me anything bigger incase I got bored which I tended to :p.


Then on my 8th birthday, my dad surprised me with 2 bunny rabbits!! I was the happiest girl that day. Sadly my rabbits died a month of each other. They died from injuries resulting from jumping out of this huge cardboard box (1 meter in height and 2 meters wide) we used as their home. After that, it was a bunch of terrapins, followed by budgies. I had 3 of them. My favourite was a big male budgie called Lucky. He was the best. Super affectionate, cheeky and super smart. He would be allowed out the cage and flew around the apartment and would never escaped. He would come to me and fluffed up his feathers to indicate he wanted a head rub. He eventually died of old age and so did the others. Guess I was better with birds than rabbits, fishes or terrapins. I had always wanted cats and dogs, but I knew my parents would not allow. So the moment I had my own place, I got my first cat. The reason I didn't get a dog was that I was still doing my PhD and it was not fair to have a dog and leaving it at home the whole day, while I was at school. So a cat was the best choice, as they are very independent. 


I started my search at the local SPCA in Glasgow, UK. I had my heart set on a tabby Tom, but sadly, all the tabbies were booked up. All that were left was a gorgeous big ginger boy or a black and white boy. The ginger was affectionate, while the black and white was rather aloof. Looking at their charts, it was revealed that the black and white had spent 3 months at the SPCA, came in with horrendous injuries and had to go in and out to the vets. My husband took sympathy towards him, so it was decided that we had to give this poor cat a home. After all the paperwork, he was handed over to us in a cardboard crate. I took a closer look at him, and what I saw was a large Tom cat whose 4 year old (estimated) face showed a lot of scars from living rough on the streets. We named him Tom.

The world looks better when you are upside down

Trapeze artists do it, so do the bats.....so maybe everything does look better when you are upside down? I wish my cat, Sumi and my dogs can shed some light on this matter. There are so many times that I catch up lying on their backs. I have seen lots of Golden Retrievers do it, and other dogs irregardless of breeds. But what I love most is how adorable they look, so much so I will either quickly snap a picture of that moment or just go and give them a belly rub.

Here are some pictures I've taken to brighten up your day. 

Sumi caught doing it