In October 2015 we had to say goodbye to our 9 year old Siamese cat, Misty, who was suffering from chronic renal failure - she had been bought from Vindex cats. So in November we bought two new Siamese kittens, Flora and Fauna. Misty was a modern Siamese body: she was never robust and had had a bad start in life. So we went for traditional Siamese. We found traditional Siamese kittens at Arpege and decided to take two sisters. Flora and Fauna were very strong and robust.
We take our cats for walks. These two, despite the wet and muddy winter weather, took to walking like ducks to water. For their first holiday in March 2016 we took them to north Norfolk, where they easily managed 9 miles in one day!
In June that year we took them on holiday to the Dorset/Devon border. Again they walked freely with us, off the lead. That is until the 12th day when we walked from Beer to Branscombe where we had a snack. On the way back both cats decided the undergrowth on the cliff edge was very interesting and promptly went through the fence beyond our reach. We walked on, expecting them to get worried about the distance separating us and to follow.
They did not! So we sat it out, as far from them as we reasonably could. After about 3 hours, one of them (Flora) did come out and let us pick her up. Fauna stayed in the undergrowth. Eventually I walked back to Beer to collect our car and to drive it to Branscombe. My wife stayed with our dog, Poppy (to whom both kittens had strongly bonded), watching for Fauna.
I parked the car at Branscombe and joined my wife - still no sign of Fauna. So I brought Flora up the hill, this time on the lead and eventually fauna did come out to join her sister. This was some 5 hours after they first disappeared! For the rest of the holiday they both stayed on leads!
By this time the two were 10 months old, and clearly had grown up enough to be a little too independent. We have since taken them for a couple of walks and they will follow us - for whatever distance suits them. But they expect to rule the walk - and controlling two cats rather independent cats on a walk is difficult! Nor will they let us carry them when they get tired!
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