Cat - Real Life Stories

Read the real life stories of some of our most recent feline customers.

Creature comforts for wanderlust cat

Bentley in road traffic accident

Boris goes for a spin

Near miss as hunter Sasha becomes the hunted

Creature comforts for wanderlust cat

When you're a 21 year old cat you can be forgiven for simply wishing for a cosy corner by the family fire. Not Toby, the globetrotting cat who belongs to Gordon and Jenny Sinclair of Berkshire.

Gordon and Jenny are intrepid travellers and noted that Toby had become increasingly unhappy about his regular stays in the local cattery. The ginger and white cat was affectionate and intelligent and simply hated being left behind. 'There was no other option but to get him one of the new PET passports and take him with us,' smiles Gordon.

'We used to take along his creature comforts - things like his food and water bowls - so that he felt thoroughly at home. As he got even older we decided to surround him with his creature comforts and buy a motor home so that he really felt it was home from home. It was rather an expensive solution but he is a very special cat. He has now been abroad with us over 10 times and has travelled over 30,000 miles visiting numerous different countries including Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Italy.

'We think it is the travelling that has kept him so young at heart and alert. But we would not have considered it if we could not have taken out pet insurance. It was so important to know that he would be looked after wherever we were.'

Bentley in road accident

One Saturday during the summer, Bentley the cat was crossing the road near his house for a little mousing in the local fields when he was hit by a passing car. Luckily, another passing motorist spotted the collision and stopped to see if Bentley was ok. He looked a bit shaken but not too bad considering he'd just been hit by a car! Noticing a collar around his neck, the motorist called the telephone number on it and managed to reach Bentley's owner, Mr Wright.

Mr Wright and his wife, Jenny, rushed to the crash site where they found Bentley limping and a little unstable on his front legs. They drove him straight to the vet who sedated him and kept him in for observation and to recover from the shock.

"It wasn't until Bentley had an X-Ray on the Monday that they discovered that his front leg was badly fractured," said Jenny. He was transferred to Moulton Veterinary College for a referral and they operated that evening. Bentley's leg was pinned and fitted with an external fixator until the fracture had healed

The operation was a success but, much to his chagrin, Bentley had to stay in a 3ft x 3ft cage for a month for his leg could heal.

"We'd only insured Bentley with Pet Protect a couple of months earlier, and thank goodness we did,” said Jenny. “Bentley's veterinary bill came to over £750. For such a tiny thing it's amazing how the veterinary bills soon mount up!"

Bentley has now almost fully recovered his ordeal but has yet to venture back outside.

Boris goes for a spin

Harvey and Boris, Angela Rawlins' Blue Point Birmans, always used to have fun climbing in and out of her warm tumble dryer - when it wasn't turned on.

"They are complete monkeys, always up to mischief but loveable all the same," says Angela.

So you can imagine her horror when, after putting some towels in for a quick dry, she realised that little Boris had crept in there when she wasn't looking.

"It could have been disastrous,” says Angela, “but luckily I was still having breakfast, so I heard the banging."

The beautiful blue-eyed cat was only inside for a couple of minutes before being rescued, but his brief ride had left him stunned and severely shaken. Angela took him straight to the vet who initially suspected damaged bladder nerves - which would have resulted in poor Boris being put to sleep.

Fortunately, the only serious damage was to his tail and an X-Ray revealed that even that wasn't broken. A course of painkillers turned out to be all that was required for some quite nasty bruising: a very lucky escape indeed! After two days of rest at the vets, Boris was allowed to go home for some much-needed TLC.

Angela is in no mood to let it happen again. "Needless to say I'm quite neurotic now," she smiles. "I'll always empty the drier if I'm not absolutely sure he's not got in!"

Pet Protect paid £116 towards the treatment of Boris's tumble, leaving Angela's wallet a lot less battered that poor Boris's tail.

Near miss as hunter Sasha becomes the hunted

Sasha, a twelve month old Maine Coon, lives with Gill and Andrew Woodcock and their children, Jessica and Alex, on a quiet and pleasant estate in Ormskirk, a market town in Lancashire. A gentle, home-loving cat, she rarely ventures outside the garden apart from a regular half hour walkabout every evening.

One evening last April she returned from her post-meal stroll early and in an unusually distressed state. She scratched and bit 14 year old Jessica when she tried to pick her up, and was obviously in a lot of pain. Jessica's mum, Gill, calmed the distressed cat down and made sure they were at Northway Veterinary Centre when it opened at 8.30 the next morning.

There Gill was astounded to learn that not only had Sasha been shot with a air-rifle, but that a hunting pellet had missed her spine by a fraction of a centimetre. She needed a general anaesthetic to have the pellet removed and had to wear a Buster Clic collar for several weeks to stop her licking the wound

"She's a gorgeous cat with big tufty ears and looks quite lynx-like. I don't know whether someone was just trigger happy, whether they thought they had a feral cat in their garden, or whether she had taken a fancy to someone's goldfish. Whatever the provocation, if indeed there was any, I think it is disgraceful that anyone would shoot a domestic cat," says Gill.

The Woodcocks have kept the protective collar to one side in case they ever need it again, but Sasha still eyes it warily, having considered it to be a form of torture while it was a part of her wardrobe! Happily, she is back to her usual self and even venturing out again.

"I dread to think what would have happened if that bullet had damaged her spine,” says Gill, “and I was so glad that I had taken out pet insurance. Worrying about pet bills was the last thing I would have wanted on my mind as we waited for Sasha's diagnosis."