Dream pets – what would yours be?

Posted By Laura in #New!, charity, Childrens, The Four the Laundry the Life, Toys | 0 comments

If there’s one thing my children have always wanted, it’s a cat.
Actually that’s not quite true. The eldest remembers us having a cat – this, my beloved Elwood.
(yes Elwood – we had Jake & Elwood the Blues Brothers. Except they turned out to be the Blues Sisters. Then Jake got run over… Elwood didn’t really work anymore, did it?)
Except she was elderly when No.1 came along, and she was always *my* cat – a gift from my then-new husband. She never did take to children, and he simply recalls that cats are grumpy and aloof. And the third boy, Jolly, has never been big on cats, he’s quite happy without (to be fair he wasn’t big on dogs either until we brought Blue home). She so avoided children that the two younger boys only have hazy recollections of her, and Bear doesn’t remember her at all; a grand old dame, 17yr old Elwood had to finally leave us when Bear was just 18mths.

Consequently Boy & Bear? Oh how they yearn for a cat.

Boy had a cat on his Christmas list for years. Now, at the elderly age of 15, he accepts it’s not to be – and just stops to speak to any cat he comes across.
Bear, now 10, has read every single one of the Warrior Cats seemingly endless series. She plays Roblox as a cat. She designs cat structures in Minecraft. She’s learning to draw cats. She not only regularly studies the Big Book of Cats, she has picked names for every breed she *might* one day own.

Sadly, cat ownership is not in our stars anymore. It became apparent after adopting our two black kittens that the husband is severely allergic to cats. He managed for the years we had them, but he really doesn’t want to start the cat-hair-battle again.

There’s nothing like a huge Blue cuddle when you’re feeling tired

Nor do we think it fair to introduce a cat into the house where Blue the Rottweiler reigns supreme. Soft as she is, we feel that one is enough for us. She is, after all, a Lot Of Trouble quite a lot of the time. We did have a dog before Blue, and she never visited the vets for anything more than her annual boosters. But then Blue the Calamity came into our lives – and we bless the day we decided to take out Petplan dog insurance (if you’re not convinced, go take a read of that post. Honestly, you couldnt’t make it up – except I know many fellow dog owners who have had to fork out for their pets eating carrier bags, bars of chocolate, grapes, a neighbours flooring…).

So when asked to design her perfect pet, I was pretty sure I knew what Bear would draw. I’m pretty sure a lot of kids would draw a mad creature with golden wings and 9 legs and green fur. Not my girl. She just wants a cat.

She hustled to her computer straight away – digital drawing is her current ‘thing’ – and set to with purpose.
I wasn’t altogwether surprised at the result:
I did point out that her drawing was about to be made into an actual soft toy, and maybe she might like to move that little ear half way down the head up to the top. but no – THIS is how her cat looks in her head. This is what she yearns for.

And those amazing people at PetPlan actually made it happen for her. No no, silly, not a REAL one. Finding a white cat with ginger patches woud be hard enough – finding one with a half-sized ear on the side of their head would be plain impossible.
No, just for Bear, they actually created her beloved Ginger…

I know – too cute, right? And look at that funny little ear – it actually lo0ks pretty perfect. And such a sweet, happy little face too.

Naturally like most 10yr olds, Bear has days where she’s not overjoyed at being in front of the camera. So while I wait for a day when she’s happy to pose, here’s one I grabbed when she didn’t realise I was waiting to pounce…

I think Ginger’s about as a good as a Dream Pet gets – at least until Bear is old enough to have her own place, and finally get a real Ginger of her own…

This post has been possible thanks to Petplan, but as always all thoughts are my own