Emma and Ruth on Instagram:

Hey, so we have six cats. If you ever wondered what they all look like, Emma actually got all six of them to sit still and look in roughly the right direction for #internationalcatday. Four of the six were rescues, living feral, when we took them in. The other two were a friend’s cats we took in when she had to move and couldn’t keep them. Ginger, O’Reilly and Scarlett are about 17. Nick is under five, we think, and Sam and Winter are brothers born approximately September/October 2016. Ginger is deaf, Scarlett is blind, and O’Reilly is and always has been chronically clumsy. Nick could do with losing a bunch of weight, Winter probably could too, but right now, they’re enjoying food security for the first time ever, so, y’know. Also, Mum keeps overfeeding them despite us trying to explain to her what portion sizes should be, and she’s the one up at 5am, so we can’t intervene when she dumps a whole can in their bowls.

flightinflame replied: the fact she othersise seems fine shows how well you are looking after her

I guess, I just wish she was in the main part of the house where I could watch her all the time. She’s in what’s essentially a box room right now, because it was the only place to put the two of them where they’d not have access to the outside and also be separate from the other cats and the dogs. I’m just going to have to remember to check on them more regularly and make sure she’s comfortable and healthy.

Well, that’s a thing that’s happened

We worked out in the last day that our calico, Scarlett, has gone blind. This has happened fairly quickly, in the last few weeks. She seems fine, if a little confused, hasn’t lost weight, is still up for purring and pats, she just doesn’t respond to us flapping our hands in front of her at all and isn’t looking up at our faces. I guess it’s a part of her getting old – she’s about seventeen – and as far as we can tell, it’s cataracts, so probably isn’t hurting her at all. No signs of anything that would suggest it’s due to a tumour or anything. Her safety isn’t at risk, because her and O’Reilly have been exclusively inside cats since we moved in with Mum two years ago, so she won’t get lost or anything, but I still feel like I should be doing something, even though there’s nothing to do. She naps all day when she isn’t being fed anyway, and so long as we don’t move her litter tray, food or water she should be able to find things easily, because she’s not disoriented, but still. I feel like I should be doing something.