Adopting Our Cat Boof

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Boof was a stray kitten. A kind person found him and took him to a local pet charity shelter, but that wasn’t the end of his troubled kittenhood. Thankfully this charity was no-kill, because had it not been I don’t think little Boof would have made it. He was weak and struggling and a subsequent accident may have marked the end for our stray kitten had it not been for his charity care.

The cat sanctuary fed him up and had him vaccinated and chipped. Chipping is a legal requirement here, but before he could be desexed he had an accident while in the shelter’s care. Nobody knows how, but little Boof broke his leg.

The cat carers rushed him to the vet where X-rays revealed a fractured femur. Poor baby Boof had to spend 6 weeks in plaster confined to a tiny quarantine cage. He must have been miserable. Thankfully shelter staff did a good job of nursing him while his leg healed.

Shortly after the plaster came off we visited the cat shelter and it was immediately obvious that Boof was our cat. Staff warned us that he was a kitty with issues. A 6 month old intact male with some behavioural quirks that could drive people insane. But we loved him.

We paid our money and took him home right away. And so began our indoor cat keeping journey.

It was a steep learning curve for us. Figuring out diet, litter trays, toys and all the things we needed to keep Boof happy. Having an indoor cat, in your home, 24 / 7 is harder on the humans than having a cat who can go outside. Lessons were learned fast. We had to adapt ourselves, our home, our behaviour, to best suit Boof. We had to figure out how to deal with cat litter and litter trays for an indoor cat. Avoiding bad odours and litter tracking became top priorities.

There were also his behavioural issues to deal with. He was a random biter, a hair chewer and an ear licker. The latter two necessitated him sitting on shoulders often. Having a cat on your shoulders all day long and cat spit in your hair, although initially endearing, grew bothersome. We were under attack but still we loved his quirky ways. Helping him be more socially acceptable came down to play and the right toys and routine. We did a lot of research, made plenty of mistakes, and that’s how this cat blog was born.

You can see how we cut the litter tray odours and diarrhoea in our post on cat food for indoor cats. A better diet also helped reduce tracking. The play biting and attacking was fixed with cat toys  the occasional squirt with water and highly engaged cat enrichment, we have a post on that too. The right type of cat litter and litter boxes kept our home cleaner and cut the workload while making our indoor cat more comfortable. You can find all this information by clicking the links. More from a cat called Boof coming soon. Welcome to Happy Indoor Cat.