Gato’s story (AKA Whitey, AKA Father Dougal the feral)

We moved into our house in the Summer of 2021; by the Autumn a beautiful black fluffy cat had started visiting the garden. He looked well fed and was friendly, so we offered him the odd treat and he kept coming. A few weeks later he started to bring a friend, a skinny, scruffy, timid little white thing, that would come nowhere near us. Whitey, as he came to be known (our pet names are always this original), clearly needed more than the odd handful of Dreamies, so we bought some proper food and started to feed him daily.

Whitey was more than timid, he was terrified. He would watch us put his food down and not come and eat it until we had moved away, even though he was clearly very hungry. Over time he began to trust us a bit more, he would rub around our ankles as we put the washing out, and rush over to eat as soon as we walked outside with his food, but there was no way we could touch him.

This continued for several months until the next Spring, when Whitey suddenly stopped coming. We called him and looked for him but over time assumed the worst. We live near a few busy roads and thought something must have happened to him. We continued to miss him and started to think about adopting a rescue cat. So I had a look on the local Cats’ Protection website thinking maybe we’d get a kitten, and there he was, our scruffy little cat looking for a new home!

It turned out he’d gone roaming looking for a mate and had made it to the next village, where he proceeded to fight and terrorise the locals. When he had been picked up he was deemed so feral they had to sedate him to examine him, but once they had removed his broken tooth, neutered him, and given him all his vaccines, he was ready for a proper home. Advertised as feral and not suitable to live with other animals or children, he didn’t seem a very inviting prospect for potential adopters, and at the time was the longest staying cat at the rescue centre, but we knew it was fate, we needed to bring him home.

We returned Gato (Spanish for cat, again very original, and much kinder than Father Dougal which was the name given to him at the rescue centre) to his original home. It has taken a lot of time and patience on all of our parts, but he has gradually grown to trust us, and become the sweetest and most loving cat you can imagine. He now greets us as soon as we come home from anywhere, sits on our laps when we watch TV, constantly fluffs around us asking for attention, and loves to jump on the bed to purr us awake in the middle of night if we forget to shut the door. 

There is no doubt that the wonderful care and attention that Cheryl and Jane give Gato at The Cat’s Whiskers has played a big part in Gato’s transformation from feral to loving pet. We travel a lot so he has spent a lot of time with them, and from the first time he stayed with them we have been very reassured that he is safe and extremely well cared for while we are away. Not only that, every time he comes home from his holidays he is a bit more tame, a bit more loving, and a lot more vocal, further testament to just how well looked after he is in their care. We would recommend a stay with them to any and every cat owner, and don’t know what we’d do without them now, Thank You!

Best wishes,

Bryany and Fernando x (Gato’s mum and dad)