Orla Kitty

I don’t give my cat, Orla Kitty as much of a profile on this blog as RLT, but she is a super important part of our family. Orla Kitty is a Russian Blue x Ragdoll and came to us by chance really. Mark had cats before and missed them, I’d never had much to do with them and out of curiosity looked at a site called pre loved. A lady about 30 miles away was in need of rehoming a cat urgently. I couldn’t get this cat out of my head, she was only five months old and I had seen previously that these sites were being used by sub-humans buying up cats to rile up dogs ahead of dog fights. I was adamant that this was this cat’s destiny if we didn’t get her – so that day, we did. We turned up to a mad house of cats climbing curtains, kids crying, boxes being packed up and overflowing litter trays.

This cat needed out of there fast, the woman who owned her was leaving her husband and three kids, he gave her custody of the cats and she wasn’t allowed to take more than one to her new home. So the little one had to go. We felt incredibly sorry for the kids and cats in that house. We thought we’d just go to meet the cat that night, but off we left with their loaned cat carrier across the moors ready to take the little cat, named Mabel, to her new home after being witness to three small kids having to say goodbye to their beloved pet. It was so sad and quite an odd experience to be part of given that they were strangers.

orla kitty with orla kiely

We decided to change her name as she only responded to ‘little cat’ anyway. We racked our brains for days then suddenly I realised that as I was fully obsessed with Orla Kiely, it would be only right to name her after my favourite designer, therefore she was known as Orla Kitty from that day on and we registered her as so with the microchip people, vet and pet insurance.

Orla Kitty and I had an ok relationship, I worked close to home so I used to come home for lunch to check on her, she wasn’t particularly troublesome just always around somewhere or on your knee. She was closer to Mark than I because he was better with her, I was a bit jumpy.

All of that changed when two months after we got Orla Kitty I found out that I was pregnant, but sadly the pregnancy was progressing but the baby had not developed in around five weeks. I had to have a medical miscarriage. This broke my heart. I’m not very good at talking about how I feel, but Mark threw himself into work to cope and I sat at home feeling incredibly sorry for myself. I am not exaggerating when I say that Orla Kitty saved me from myself at that time. She never left my side at any point I was on my own, she laid in bed with me every day until Mark got home. If I cried she would sit as close to my face as possible, almost as if she was trying to wipe away my tears with her fur. I was spiralling into depression, I had some circumstances at work which were exasperating this, but this cat showed me kindness when I needed it most and I have never been more thankful to anyone or anything than I will be to her.

This was the day before I returned to work after my miscarriage.

That was almost two and a half years ago now and we have been together through two house moves, another pregnancy and a baby in the house since then. This cat never ceases to amaze me. The kindess she shows to the baby is remarkable. She is so patient and gentle with him.

orla kitty with mandascat illustration of her

Some people think it is strange that we have a picture of our cat as the main artwork of our kitchen/diner but as well as being created by a darling friend, mandascat and being one of a kind, they really don’t understand exactly how important our cat is to our family. I may joke around on social media and call her #catjerk but this cat has shown me kindess at a time when people at work and the world did not. I can never thank her enough for what she did for me at that time and for adjusting so well to RLT. So we will continue to treat her like a cat queen! Sometimes we find comfort in the places we least expect and I make no apologies for thinking my cat is wonderful in a world where not many people understand this. I guess this must make me a crazy cat lady.

orla kitty