The Cat’s Whiskers – One Year On…
We said in our last post that we’d say a bit more about the last year and how it’s been for all of us, so here goes…
I (Cheryl) was planning on taking redundancy from my previous job. I said to Pete, ‘I’d like to run a cattery’ and he said, ‘OK, let’s buy one’…..and the rest, as they say, is history. We moved in on 30th November last year, with plans for both the cattery and the bungalow. And a year on, we’re so very nearly there! The changes and extension to the bungalow should be finished in the next few weeks and the refurbishment of the cattery is almost complete. It’s been one heck of a year and there have been times when we wondered if we’d done the right thing. We feel as if we’ve worked 24 hours a day but it’s all worthwhile when we get your lovely feedback. There have been the inevitable sad moments as our feline friends, like us, get older; we lost 6 of our regulars this year and said sad farewells to Costa, Sylvie, Monty, Pip, Tom and Sir Humphrey. But loads of happy moments and wonderful memories made too, especially maintaining existing relationships with customers who have been coming to us for years; and developing new ones, with our many, many new customers. And there have been lots of stand out moments, most recently when our gorgeous Billy finally went off to his new home this week after 5 months with us – happy tears all round.
It’s been a steep learning curve, challenging and difficult at times. We’ve learnt practical skills – how to give medication from tablets to insulin injections – and Cheryl and Jane are going on a Small Animal First Aid course in the New Year. We’ve learnt a lot about cat behaviour, including how to win round the shy, timid and downright scared cats, and how to respect those who simply don’t want us near them – fortunately we only have a handful of those! Your feedback and kind reviews mean a lot to us and let us know we’re getting things right. That’s the most important thing to us – that your feline friends are happy and relaxed when they stay with us. We’ve learnt too that running a cattery can be all-consuming and that we need to make time for ourselves. So from the New Year, Jane will be with us on a more regular basis, which will give us a bit of much needed ‘us time’ and hopefully give you confidence that there is continuity of care for your fluffy companions.
If you’re a regular follower of our Facebook page, you’ll have seen some of the photos of the changes we’ve made; there’s a small selection attached to this post. We hope you like what we’ve done and continue to do, but we’re still learning and will always welcome your thoughts and comments on what we do well and what we could do better.
Happy one year anniversary to us and here’s to many more.
Thanks for your support and see you soon.
Chery & Pete xx
We are always ready to take on your furry friends at The Cat’s Whiskers cattery.
Call us, email us, whenever.
