Annabelle Update

It’s been almost six months since we’ve had our beautiful baby cat, Annabelle. It seems like we’ve had her our whole life.

Annabelle has had a few changes lately but has settled in well.

We moved in the middle of June. A few days before moving, she started to act a bit unsettled as things in the house were changing. The day of the move went pretty smoothly. We had her in an empty room with her blanket, tray, and water while we emptied the rest of the house. Then we put her in her carry case and I had her on my knee in the car. When we got to the new house, we kept her in her carrier for a little bit while we were moving things in, then we let her out in our new living room.

She hid behind a chair for most of the first night. A mixture of the new house and my boyfriends family being there meant she was feeling pretty anxious.

As soon as we had put the bed up, we took her up to our bedroom so we could have a bit of familiarity, with her tray in our en suite. She mostly hid under the bed. She slept under our bedcovers next to my legs that first night.

Her confidence started to grow and it wasn’t long before she was exploring. We kept some rooms shut to start with as we didn’t want to overwhelm her, but she started jumping up at the doors to go in.

As the house is a new build, there is still some building work going on. We lived in a very quiet cul-de-sac before and she isn’t used to much noise. She kept hiding under the bed or bedcovers when she heard the noises, but after a week she got used to it. The builders are usually gone by 4 pm so it’s not too bad.

We had a funeral and wedding to attend a week after we moved in. We didn’t want to put her through another stressful move by taking her to a cattery for just two nights, so decided to pay a local cat sitter to come to our house a couple of times a day to feed her and give her some attention. If we were going to be away longer, we would have considered a cattery but it seemed pointless for just two nights as she would have spent the whole time scared with no time to get used to it before we dragged her back home.

I had a lot of guilt about leaving her so soon after we had just moved, but we couldn’t change someone’s wedding or funeral so it had to go ahead. I did cry the morning we left her!

The cat sitter was brilliant, she had come a few days before to meet her and see where we kept things for her. She took information about her vets and where the cat carrier was in case she needed to take her in.

She messaged after the first visit and after the last visit to update us. Typical Annabelle hid for most of the visit apart from the last one. The cat sister spent some time talking to her but didn’t want to force herself on her.

When we got home, she was acting like her normal self, which I was really relieved about. She didn’t seem stressed or mad at us! She was probably glad of the break.

I know people say cats are okay on their own, but she is an affectionate cat and she sleeps with us so I was worried about her feeling lonely or left behind.

I would have preferred to have someone stay in our house the whole time with her, but that just wasn’t possible.

Overall she is doing really well and is acting like she owns the place. She is even using the top part of her cat tree we bought her and is using a scratching pad! She never usually uses any things we actually buy for her!