I fell in love with Spud (Nevis as he was then) when I first saw his photo on the Preston Cats Protection Facebook page in November 2019. I never expected him to still be available the next day but he was so after phoning and leaving my details I went to meet him, and it was love at first (well, second if you count the photo) sight! He was so confident that he settled in with my existing gang immediately, winning over even the most hostile within a record two days! I usually like to acclimatise a new kitten in a large pen for at least a week or two, with supervised time out amongst the existing gang, Spud was like “nope, not doing the pen thing”, and was out and amongst them in minutes. He was penned for eating and overnight for a while but only so that I could be sure he got his own food and the big ones didn’t pinch it. I have never had a kitten integrate so fast and so completely before.
His confidence didn’t end there either, I have a cat exercise wheel (imagine giant hamster wheel), he was running on that in 2 days, at just 10 weeks old; he soon discovered the cat flap to the “catio” and how to use it and was out climbing the big tower and the tree very quickly; I like to show my cats at cat shows and he competed in three before Covid shut them down, in the first one he won Overall Best Pet, the second one he was Best Pet Kitten, and in the third one he was again Overall Best Pet. He is confident and cheeky at home, he is rarely still, he never walks but always runs, thankfully, as he has grown, he has stopped running up the curtains! He got his name from one of those random happenings. I already had a “posh show name” for him for cat shows – Hercule Purrot in view of his moustache, but wanted a pet name for him too. I was considering “Dave” as David Suchet plays Hercule Poirot of course, but somehow he just wasn’t a Dave. I was watching an old rerun of Midsomer Murders on TV and there was a character nicknamed Spud in it and it just leapt out at me, and Spud he was.
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Spud endears himself to everyone he meets and has grown into a very handsome cat. When most of the Preston branch left to form A Purrfect Friend he became their “poster boy” and appears on the posters you see at your vets and on the food bins at supermarkets, he features on Christmas cards sold partly on behalf of the charity and his first desk calendar (again with a percentage of sales going to APF) sold out completely. He also has his own Facebook and Instagram pages – https://www.facebook.com/Spud-the-cat-with-a-tash-102068554670424 and https://www.instagram.com/spudthetashcat/, and does an occasional “Spudcast” on his Facebook page where he offers his opinions on a wide variety of topics. He would love you to follow him!
