Linda (50) and her husband Harry (53) both love cats. And fond of their four Ragdolls. Today, Linda tells all about their cosy house full of animals. And also what cute nicknames they have.
Linda lives in a lovely corner house by the water in beautiful Volendam. She has been married to her Harry for thirty years and has two daughters who have found their own place by now. But that does not mean it is not cosy in the house. On the contrary. Linda and Harry now live together with no less than four cats and a dog.
But before, it was even busier: they already had three cats – Koe, Queen and Bowie. The latter two had a litter and six kittens were born. And then the house got very crowded. So Koe moved to a nice quiet basket with one of Linda’s daughters together with the two kittens Raki and Sambucca from the litter. Linda’s other daughter also adopted two kittens and named them AC and DC. And then four cats remained.
Tell us Linda: who are these four cosy cats?
Bowie is the kittens’ father, is a Ragdoll and named after the singer David Bowie. He is a bit of an oaf as he is not very smart. But that does make for lots of hilarious moments in the house. For instance, when he wants to jump on something, he often jumps against it instead of on it. And when he wants to switch from the sofa to a table, he regularly falls in between. This clumsiness started early on – when he was six months old he already fell off a chair once and broke his leg. Fortunately, that turned out well, because he had surgery and now has all screws and plates in his hind leg. So we call him our ‘bionic cat’, but more often we call him Bobo.
Bowie we often call: Bobo, our bionic cat’
Queen is the mother of the litter of kittens, is also a Ragdoll and is named after the band Queen because they once sang a duet with David Bowie. Liked. She can be very crazy at times. Then she feels young again and runs around the house like crazy and jumps into the cat tree. But most of the time she is quiet and then prefers to crawl on top of my laptop when I am working at home. Cosy, but of course that’s never convenient.
Stuart was the smallest kitten in the litter, was born snow-white and looked an awful lot like Stuart Little, a little mouse from a cartoon. He got his name from that. Stuart is the quietest of them all. And also the smartest. He looks first, then thinks about what he is going to do and only then takes action.
Montserrat once ended up in a bucket of water!
Montserrat is one of the Ragdoll kittens and named after singer Montserrat Caballe – she once sang a duet with Queen. Montserrat we often refer to as ‘Our Rat’ as a joke. He is bursting with energy and afraid of nothing – flies at everything without thinking and once ended up in a bucket of water as a result.
That sounds like a very cosy couple! What does a day with your cats look like?
Not only do we have four cats, but of course we also have a dog. And we both work full-time, so our alarm clock rings early. And when it rings, there are four snorting cats on our bed demanding attention. They all sleep in our bedroom in our new scratching barrel Pillar 117. We are happy with that, because this scratching tower has four tiers and a lounge basket at the top. More than enough sleeping places for our cats, then.
When we are all up, my husband walks the dog and I give the cats some treats. In the morning they get meat or fish and in between there are always kibble for them. Then, off to work and when we come home in the afternoon, we are always greeted by four very happy cats. Then I give them some food again and my husband and I crawl on the sofa. And the cats retreat to scratching post Charlotte 180 which is in the living room, which also has more than enough space for all four cats.
Do you ever let the cats out?
We have made our garden ‘catproof’ because we want our cats to be able to go outside safely. When we are not at home, they are all inside. But when we are around, they are allowed outside when the weather is nice. And they love that – then they go running, play hide-and-seek or lie on the wall watching the fish and ducks swimming by.
And how do you do it when you go on holiday?
We don’t go on holiday very often. And when we do, we only go for a short time. We do want the cats to be well cared for and pampered, so we always arrange for a sitter. Usually someone comes to the house and if that doesn’t work out, my daughters come by every day to look after them and cuddle them. This is how we prefer to do it, because we prefer not to take our cats to a shelter – that is very stressful for them. I think they are best off in their own environment.
The last question again! Why do you love cats so much?
My husband grew up with cats and from the first moment we lived together, we have had cats in the house. Because we love them. Cats are independent and lead their own lives. And come to you when it suits them. And then you also know it’s sincere, that they really want to be with you. Ragdolls are special in that respect – this breed of cat is very affectionate and loves to cuddle. Our cats are always near us and are terribly happy when we come home. They are actually like dogs.
Linda chose scratching barrel Pillar 117 for the bedroom and scratching post Charlotte 180 for the living room. And she is very happy with it, because the scratching posts are stable, big and nice and high. Her daughters are also fans of Petrebels scratching posts: her youngest chose Superdome 120 and Victoria 125. And her eldest bought Siberian 200 for her cats.