You know yourself that time creeps up on you. It’s a short few weeks since we were all busy preparing for Christmas and now? Decorations packed away and January is half-way through already.
Time has really crept up on the Paws for Thought Cattery. This year marks 25 years since it first opened its doors for business. That’s made us stop to think what life was like on the day it opened.
- Tony Blair was the UK’s Prime Minister, and Humphrey was the Official Mouser to Number Ten. Cherie Blair received enormous criticism in 1997 for (allegedly) asking for Humphrey to be evicted because she was allergic to his fur. She was forced to pose for a photograph holding Humphrey to prove that they were ‘friends’ (neither of them looked happy!). Humphrey retired in 1997 and wasn’t replaced until Sybil arrived at Number 10 in 2007.
- The American President, Bill Clinton, often posed for photographs with Socks, his own rescue cat.
- Boarding fees were cheaper then – but to be fair, catfood and cleaning material and business rates were cheaper then as well.
25 Years of Cats
And what about the cats of the year 2000? They enjoyed more privacy, in one way – the first ever cat video on YouTube was uploaded in 2005, so in the year 2000 a cat could fall into a pond, look comically grumpy or ride a bicycle in its dreams without its antics being filmed and displayed to the world. The Internet has really taken off as a means for spreading cat-related joy since then. Anyone remember Rod Ponton? He is the lawyer from Texas who appeared on a Zoom call court hearing in 2021 – with a filter that made him appear to be a white cat in a suit. He struggled and failed to remove the filter and was reduced to reassuring the judge that ‘I’m not a cat!’
The Cattery – Then and Now
Anyone visiting Paws for Thought in that first year would have to rely on their own impressions of the place before booking a pen, as there was no formal cattery certification system. These days, Google, FaceBook and websites are often the first port of call for checking the reputation of a cattery or bringing a lost cat home. In 2000, cats sometimes had microchips – but more often they did not, and getting your straying cat home then was often a matter of hope and leaflets.
We took over the cattery in 2010, so we don’t have any direct memories of what Paws For Thought was like back then. We’ve tried to improve it over the last fifteen years, and I hope our customers have noticed the difference. So many of you come back time after time that we must be doing something right – last December has been our busiest ever!
Here’s to the future and the cats that we love. Bring them to us for the holiday of their lifetime.
Photo by Engin Akyurt (Pixabay)
Did your cat have a holiday worth celebrating with us? Post a Google review and let everyone know!
