Meet my four cats: Baby Cat, Mr White, Kitten and Squeaky

My cats are unusually smart.

They love SpaceX launches, Shaun the Sheep, iPads, travelling  and they genuinely understand a surprising amount of English.

My cat adventure began in Xi’an, China, with one very special rescue.

Pussy Cat — The First Friend

I rescued my first cat from Virtuos Games Studio in Xi’an.

He had lived around the building for years but fell seriously ill during Covid.

After treatment for bad teeth, an ear infection and years of rough living, he transformed into the kindest, most gentle companion I’ve ever known.

His kindness was also his weakness.

One night in Ningbo, while living in our new home, he died protecting his little family from four large roaming dogs.

I called him Pussy Cat because when he was homeless, that was what I had to shout each evening to find him and feed him.

I still miss him every day.

Baby Cat Arrives

Baby Cat came next  and it was Pussy Cat who found her.

She lived hidden in a stairwell in an unused part of our apartment block at COCO Towers in Xi’an.

Pussy Cat would sit for hours in the garden, waiting for her to appear. He adored her before she ever came home.

One day, I found some children kicking Baby Cat.

I picked her up and took her home immediately.

Pussy Cat was overjoyed, and the two of them became inseparable  a tiny adopted family built out of survival and love.

Life in Xi’an

We lived in Xi’an for two years, and life was mostly calm:

regular vet visits, long naps, endless meals, and occasional unapproved adventures around the large community gardens.

More than once they disappeared, only to eventually return to the exact spot where they first met.

Always together.

Later we moved to a smaller apartment with a smaller garden, and that’s where Baby Cat had her first encounter with “Man Cat”  a handsome neighborhood tom who appeared just as she went into heat.

Whenever she tried to approach him, I had to pull her away.

One day I told her,

“Baby Cat, that is a Man Cat. He is dangerous.”

She did not accept this decision.

She shouted at me for hours — literally — saying, in English:

“I want Man Cat. I want one!”

I have video proof.