Kate’s Motley Stories encouraged us to contribute notes about our pets, as they are part of our family history too. I thought Nibbles deserved her own proper history.
This is about Nibbles, the travelling cat. So named for her delicate way of eating. But people were always surprised that she was not bothered by all her travel. Moving to a new home can be incredibly stressful, not just for us but for our furry friends as well. For cats, a home is their territory, so moving disrupts their sense of security and routine.
She was born in our house in Somerset, England around 1995. Her mother, Burmese cat Amanda, was allowed one set of kittens before she went to see the vet. Here they are. Nibbles is one of the grey ones.
Nibbles didn’t get that opportunity but she did get her mum’s undivided attention. They both lived happily in a large but delapidated house with their own fields to roam. After the breakup, they both stayed with us until something was clear about where I was going to work.
They both had a long outdoor holiday in Derbyshire with my sister, before moving together to join us in Lithuania. She was crated up together with her mum and arrived, to our surprise and theirs, on the baggage carousel. In their new home, they were able to explore the snow on the balcony, deep enough for them to fall in up to their necks that year.
After some time, they moved once more, to a new home, but still in Vilnius. We went immediately on holiday instructing our neighbours not to let them out while we were away. Amanda thought this was too much. But she had spotted another neighbour’s cat in the shared garden, and didn’t want to share. On our return, we let them out, but Amanda disappeared, never to be recaptured. We thought perhaps she had tried to return home, but she never turned up at the previous one, so perhaps she wanted her original home and turned up at the airport. We shall never know. When I visit the nearby cemetery I often feel her spirit, as she must be long since dead.
Poor bereft Nibbles howled every night, orphaned in a foreign land. However, she stuck with us. Or we kept her inside just in case. Then we moved again and she became an indoor cat, although she managed to climb out of the balcony a few times.
This is her on holiday at a friend’s house before we moved to Athens where she happily became an outdoor cat again. Thank you Ruta for the beautiful photo.
Some friends accompanied her on her travel to Athens, pointing out proudly that she had explored one of the lounges in Warsaw airport. We were warned by the landlady that the neighbours who did not like stray cats would put out poisoned food, but she preferred to eat at home. There was only one adventure. One evening she returned with what looked like soft concrete round her legs. We assumed she had jumped in by mistake. But a quick shower cleaned her up, and she survived the water.
Then we had to return to the UK, where the quarantine rules require six months quarantine if without a rabies jab, and even then the jab has to be six months before you arrive. However, it’s impossible to predict when you will be leaving, so although there was a jab, it was only 3 months before we were leaving. Luckily that was enough for other countries, so we parked her with my other sister in Ljubljana, until a further 3 months had passed. That sister was not used to having a cat, but quickly adapted, and has never been without a cat since.
After her 3 months’ holiday in Slovenia, she moved back with us to Oxford. There she went back to outside exploring, and happily moved another twice. Here she is on her favourite place in Oxford, keeping warm.
Then in 2009 we all left Oxford, me to work in Georgia and my daughters to work and study in London. Nobody had room for Nibbles, and the rules for getting cats back from Georgia were very obscure. So we resigned her to another holiday with the UK sister, while I fixed up a home for us both in Lithuania.
Very sadly she didn’t make it back home to Lithuania again, but got ill and died while waiting at my first sister’s home in Wiltshire. Her ashes now sit on the window ledge prepared for her home coming, with a nice view of the street from the 6th floor and a big balcony to frolic in. She will never be forgotten.
Despite all the stories about cats not liking travel, Nibbles proved them wrong. She was simply adaptable to wherever she found love and attention.
How incredibly sweet. Come to think of it, our redoubtable Louie, a French poodle has such a story of travel and quarantine. From La Paz, Bolivia to Washington, Dallas airport in April 1968. Martin Luther King had just been shot and there were riots in the streets. Louie, in his crate, was lost in transit for 3 days. I’ll have to get on that story…
Nibbles was certainly a well travelled cat! Our family cat endured a few moves. Only one entailed an aeroplane and that was only an hours flight within the same country - Auckland to Wellington - which she didn't like at all. The others were just changes of house within Wellington, including a move with our daughter when she left home. A short time later, she went missing for about 3 months, probably trying to get home across the city to the family home. She turned up eventually at the SPCA with a deep gash under her left front leg where she had got her leg stuck in her collar and torn her leg open trying to get free. She came back home after that and I never put a collar on her again. She eventually died of old age - aged 18.