When we got back from our Clutha Gold bike trip,  we made good on something we’ve been talking about for a few months… we adopted a pet!

Since we like to take weekends away, we figured that a cat would be the easiest to manage, although we both love having dogs about. We drove out the the Dunedin SPCA rescue centre and fell in love with pretty much every cat in the facility.

The SPCA divides the cats they have rescued into kittens, female cats, male cats and recovery cats (animals that have had the cat flu, but are now well). We went through each section, honestly surprised that there are so many animals available for adoption. I hear from my colleagues that a lot of the students in town bring cats, or buy them when they first arrive, but abandon them when they finish their studies.

In the recovery room, a little black and white furball was acting pretty feisty and fun. We took a real shine to him, and then of course we brought him home.

He doesn’t have an official name yet, although he has had about a hundred unofficial ones in the week or so he’s been with us. First he was Luis Suárez because he would nibble at you while playing. He’s also been Zappa, SQÜRL, Nibbles, and Big Data – just to mention a few. We’ve taken to calling him Little Katze (Katze is cat in German) while we try the other names out.

He’s about 6 months old, so he’s still kitten-ish but without the need to toilet-train him. He’ll be kept inside for the next week at least (maybe two) just to make sure he’s settled before he’s allowed outside during the day. He’s pretty cute, and we’re so happy to be able to give him a loving, safe home.