Kojo and Rowan

When our cat, Salem, left our lives, our family unit was shaken. It was hard to imagine our life without Salem, who we had come to regard as much a part of our family as anyone else. I'm still grieving for him. I don't think the grief process ever goes away; it just gets easier to manage. I believe that Salem is with us wherever we go, and in my eyes, if anyone ever asks me how many cats I have, I feel inclined to say four, which is where this story begins. Following Salem's passing in March, none of us could even consider getting another cat. We felt like we could never replace Salem (rightly so) and we didn't want it to seem as if we were insulting his memory. We were open to the idea in the future though. Kurt, our other cat, aged 7, was always used to having another cat around the house with him, and following Salem's death, he grieved as much as we did. Interestingly, we always said that if Kurt had passed on rather than Salem, we wouldn't have got another one. We planned to have a look for one in July, following my GCSE's, when we had time to let them settle in, and I would have plenty of time to look after them. As per usual for our family, our plans were thwarted, and we picked up our two new kittens, Kojo and Rowan, on the 25th May 2019.

Kojo and Rowan, like Salem, were rescue kittens, brought into the RSPCA after being abandoned with their sister in Liverpool. As there wasn't enough space at the nearest RSPCA branch, they were staying at a vets in Wigan when we went to go and visit them. My Mum and I knew that we would know when the time was right to start looking for our next cat; we said that Salem would give us a sign. In the same way that the RSPCA campaigner encouraged us to take a look at the website back in 2012, my Mum felt an inclination to have a look at our local branches, and it was here that we found 'Willow' and 'Florence,' as they were known at the time. Willow bore a striking resemblance to Salem. He looked quite guilty on his photo (probably because it looked like he had just tipped up his bowl of biscuits!) but there was something in his eyes; something that both my Mum and I noticed instantly and were both drawn to; our sign. They were around 4 months old at the time, and something was telling me that we needed to go and visit them. Our original intention was to just get one another cat. Simply having Kurt was a handful, and we didn't know how easily he would adapt to having two more cats in the house, but on the website, it did mention that they would prefer it if they were taken together. We went to go and visit them the evening before my second maths exam...which probably wasn't ideal, but I had done at least an hour and a half of revision that night, before going, and I didn't want to miss out on seeing them both. Willow was just as I imagined: cheeky, playful, and full of healthy curiosity. Florence was very timid, and she did seem to need her brother's encouragement when it came to venturing out of her pen. Willow, on the other hand, required no encouragement. Straight over to disturb the other cats in their pens, he introduced us to his iconic paw movement of reaching through the cage and scooping food out of the bowls with his paw. He slunk across the floor, still reserved, but more open to his surroundings than his sister. We were told that one of the sisters had been taken, and we now had to make the difficult choice of whether or not it was the right time, and the debate of taking both of them, rather than just Willow. My Dad and I couldn't help noticing the look Florence gave us when we left though...or maybe it was just our joint way of not being able to say goodbye to either of them.

Despite our initial reservations, we all came to the joint decision that we would be introducing two new members to our household in the upcoming weeks, and so there was a lot to prepare for. A home visit was organised, and we were surprised to find that it was done by the same woman who came to us before Salem arrived. She was lovely, and was confident that the kittens would be going to a good home, whilst offering her condolences to our loss of Salem. She was part of the inspiration behind the blog post on Salem, which is the first post I ever did. We went to pick them up almost a week later, wanting to make sure they were settled in before we went away on holiday. We knew then that Salem had guided us, as outside the vets I noticed a newly made owl monument. The significance of the owl ever since Salem died seems to follow us wherever we go- a reminder that our little friend is still guiding us. We had the spare room all set up with a new cat tray, bowls, and a cat tree, to introduce them to Kurt slowly and gradually, whilst being able to give them their own space. Just as Salem did, they settled in straight away; even Florence, who we imagined would be more difficult to handle. It was my job to get up every morning and feed them, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because during the holidays it motivated me to get on with some revision. Cleaning cat litter trays was not exactly my favourite experience, but it was made up for by the amount of time I spent in the room with them, watching them settle into their new home.

Willow and Florence soon became known as Kojo and Rowan. When Salem died, I wrote a poem whilst sitting next to him in the garden. As it was coming into the spring months, I discussed that "spring's first blossom" would be "the love that (he) provides." So we all had an idea to get a blossom tree, and after looking online, we found a Japanese Blossom, named 'Kojo no mai.' We knew after that, that our next cat would be called Kojo, and he has very clearly lived up to his name: "Flight of the butterflies." I can't count the number of times that we've had to clear butterfly corpses from our house since they've both been going outside! We had a slight debate over Rowan's name. Rowan means protection, after the Rowan bush, and is quite a Pagan name. She was originally going to be called Luna, but after seeing her personality and quirkiness, she seemed more like a Rowan to us; another pagan cat for a pagan family. Kojo loves to eat, and considering we've dealt with Kurt for seven years, I can't quite believe how much Kojo tries to encourage us to feed him. The concerning part is that he will eat anything. Butterflies, houseflies, bread, and he has a particular love for prawn crackers. He can also make his way through cling film on the kitchen side, so we make an effort not to leave anything out, because we know that he will try his luck with it. Just the other day, I got a bread roll out for my lunch, left it on the kitchen side wrapped in cling film, and half an hour later, he had bitten a chunk out of it! More fool me! It's also becoming clear to us that he carries many of Salem's traits. At first, I simply believed that it was just my mind's way of trying to fill the large hole that Salem left, but it became increasingly obvious that Kojo is his little counterpart. Kojo loves cat milk, just as Salem did. We used to bring the cat milk upstairs on a tray for Salem on Sunday's, and the first time we did that with Kojo and Rowan, it was like he knew what was going on. Kojo runs behind the fridge with an almost identical trot to Salem. He tries running off from my Dad whenever he tries to pick him up, yet he likes to go in exactly the same spot that Salem did in between his legs on the sofa. The only difference is that he's a lot naughtier..and he shows no remorse for it. The other day, instead of waiting patiently on the chair, he decided he wanted to jump up on the table while we were eating Sunday dinner and make his way towards the plates. What we decided though, is that Kojo already has these traits now at seven months old; he has kitten tendencies, but mixed in with the traits that Salem adopted in his adult years, so who knows what journey Kojo will take us on in the future!

Rowan is her own individual character. She didn't like Kurt at first, ever since he chased Kojo upstairs on their first proper face-to-face meeting. She hid behind the wardrobe for hours (Kojo, who was the one being chased, was not phased at all) but we eventually managed to coax her out with some food. She's a lot daintier than Kojo, with tiny paws and a slim frame. At first, we struggled to be able to stroke her, as she used to slouch under our touch, but started to trust my Dad, and then, slowly but surely, came to trust me and my Mum, and even Kurt to a certain degree (except she does tend to hiss at him occasionally.) Rowan wasn't very vocal at first, but started to make little trill noises around the house, and louder noises when she came into contact with her toy mouse. Rowan and her mouse have become an iconic duo, and even though there are plenty of toy mice dotted around the house, there's one that Rowan holds very close to her heart (or claws, should I say!) Getting the three of them to get on was a slow process. We were very lucky that all three of them have accepted and come to a mutual understanding of one another. We used to feed them on opposite sides of a door, and then started introducing a cage into the mix so that they could see each other. They all went to the cattery together in July, and then again in August, and we did notice a slight change in their behaviours after that. Kojo and Kurt generally get on better than Kojo and Rowan do. Kojo often looks to Kurt for guidance, which means that whenever Kurt comes to pester us for food, Kojo won't be far behind...he does try to steal Kurt's food sometimes though. Most of the time, Kurt lets him finish the morsels, but if he's in a particularly bad mood, he will cuff his ears, and that's enough to get Kojo to back off. Kurt knows not to mess with Rowan though. If anything, it's because she's in charge. One hiss from Rowan will cause Kurt to back off immediately, which is probably in his best interests!

Having two new cats around has been good for Kurt. I've definitely seen a change in his demeanour since Kojo and Rowan have joined our family. Despite his grumpy nature towards them at times, I think he secretly quite likes having them around. Not only has it made him livelier, but it seems to bring him a sense of comfort in not being the only cat in the house. He undoubtedly benefits from it too, as he now has about seven beds to choose from in the dining room. Anyone would think we have seven cats in our house; we certainly give them enough choice! And just as Salem used to bring in half-dead mouse corpses, Kojo will bring in moths and daddy-long-legs for Kurt to demolish in one bite. So I think he has his benefitted from his new buddies. We also love having Kojo and Rowan around. It seems like a long time since we had two cats that are as active and crazy as those two. I certainly felt a stronger connection to Kojo at first, because of Salem, but I've really started to grow closer to Rowan in the past few weeks. Both of them have brought their own unique characters to our house, and I look forward to watching them grow in the future, with Salem's spirit right by my side.

Rowan with her iconic mouse...

Our conjoined twins..