As I have no time for anything else at least I can update my blog with some kitten photos. Should be enough of a distraction to any reader to not notice the apparent lack of new posts

Our home will soon be full of cat fluff again. We were missing Barney and kitty company, and we didn’t want to make our next cat lonely, thus we are getting two Maine Coon brothers - Coonaria Jack the Lad and Coonaria Rising Sun - shortened to pet names Jack & Sunny.

Just a quick share of out “kitty visit” at the breeders home - you can see Jack, Sunny, their brothers and sisters, and the 3 older kittens as well.

This weekend our cat Barney went for a little trip. It was only his second journey altogether in his whole life, and the first time he would have been away from home since we got him.

Together with my Partner we combined two in one and along a mother’s day visit to his parents we did a trial to find out how well would the cat deals with staying at their place. The reason being our week long upcoming Easter holiday.

It might sound simple, and not a big deal, but the whole thing involves first driving in a car for over half an hour followed by staying at a place that has other cats. Imagine that, meeting strange new animals! Barney definitely was not expecting it…

To begin with we needed to strap our ginger boy in his harness. Putting it on went quite well, however the cat seemed quite surprised afterwards. Funny enough rather than roll around frantically on the floor as my other cat did the first few times he had a harness on, Barney took a few steps and then performed a graceful fall down on his back, followed by a slow motion roll to one side. It was especially amusing considering he is usually quite frisky and runs around. It looked like he has been almost paralysed or thinking that if he does not move long enough the “weird thing” on his back will just fall off.

As a pure bred Maine Coon Barney has not been out much, apart from two visits to a park and vet check-ups. When taken outside the house he usually very quickly backs to the front door - well at least he knows where he lives… Also the only other time he has been in a car was when the breeder has brought him to us.

The journey has gone surprisingly well, even despite the cat punching holes in my legs and arms with his claws. Just a few meows, and a lot of heavy breathing later we arrived at our destination. Now came the challenging part.

My partner’s parents have a resident cat called Cleo, as well as another cat called Burglar that comes (quite often) to visit from the neighbours. The big worry was how the bunch would all get along, especially as Cleo seems to be the kind who is easily bullied around by other cats. This would mean being locked up at home with our Barney might be a very stressful experience, particularly considering he is almost twice her size, despite being only just a bit over a year old.

Fortunately all went well, our gentle giant got a little scared, tiny Cleo growled a lot and the cat from next door just ran off. We even got some extra love from the kitty at night as he spent it all at the bottom of our bed, which is friendlier than he usually is.

The journey back on Sunday was surprising peaceful. It even made us wonder weather Barney knew he was going home (and looking forward to it), or just driving in a car during the day is less scary…