A CHANCE meeting with a friendly ginger cat made a life-long dog owner have a complete change of heart. After thinking cats were a bit snobby now in 2016 Janet Willis tells SUSAN GOODSON how her life has been turned around by her four-legged friend

THE special charm of a stray moggy has completely turned the head of a confirmed dog lover who says adopting Felix the cat is one of the best things she has ever done.

Black and white Felix has not only won over owner Janet Willis, but he has her family and work colleagues firmly under his paws as well.

In fact, instead of Janet heading off to enjoy Christmas in Grange with her parents as she normally does, this year they came to her home in Dalton so they could share the company of Felix.

Adopting Felix came about only after a chance encounter with a neighbour’s cat.

Janet, who has always had golden retrievers, had spent most of her life not having much time for cats.

She explained: “I have never been a cat person, my closest friend in the north east has cats and they always seemed superior and never came near you.

“Then a ginger cat came into the house one night and he was so affectionate.

“He ended up sleeping on the bed and it made me think about getting one myself.

“In my mind I wanted a cat that, not looked like Ginger, but had the same personality, so that’s when I started my hunt.”

Janet, a county councillor, looked on all the animal charities websites and saw a photograph of Felix who was in the care of the RSPCA.

After leaving a message for Claire Pettingale, the rehoming officer for the Barrow and Furness branch of the charity, Janet made an appointment to see him.

Claire explained that Felix had come to them as a stray who had been hanging around an area of town for a while.

When he was brought in he had an infected paw.

But he was so friendly from the start and the RSPCA’s cat socialisers all wanted to take him home.

Describing their first meeting, Janet said: “Claire had said she thought Felix sounded exactly the one for me and when I saw him I didn’t even look at any of the other cats.

“They let him out and he just came up to me and was so affectionate.

“I think he is a bit of a show-off really and likes attention.

“The other week I was upstairs working, reading council papers, and he is usually pretty good.

“He just sits in his bed while I work, but I must have been reading for too long and I was highlighting things as well.

“Suddenly Felix got up on the desk and started slipping the papers on the floor and then he knocked the highlighter pen on to the floor.

“Finally he just plonked himself down in the middle of the desk of papers.”

Janet got Felix on the Bank Holiday weekend in August and when a friend came round the next day she could not believe how well he had settled in.

He was a bit clingy the first few days and followed her around the house.

If she sat down he would have to sit on her knee.

Despite their “differences” months later it has worked out better than Janet could have ever imagined.

Felix certainly likes to be the centre of everything going on in the house and loves playing with the tap when the water is running.

But Janet says: “He is absolutely gorgeous and one of the best things in my life.

“He comes and greets me when I come home, he loves cuddles and ‘helping’ me with everything I do which means everything takes twice as long.

“There are times when I come home and he is asleep and I can tell he wants to be left alone and just carry on sleeping though.

“The neighbours love him and have offered to look after him if I ever go away and even a councillor who came to pick me up for work fell in love with him. He doesn’t even like cats but once he met Felix he commented how clean he was and actually said ‘he is a bonny cat and so clean he looks brand new’.

“He does have his mad half hour and runs all over the place but then settles down.

“He sleeps on the bed with me at night and sometimes sneaks in and cuddles up or I wake up and he’s sleeping on my chest.

Janet said she only thing she would say to people considering adopting an animal was to look around and take their time, don’t get the first animal you see.

People needed to realise that animals all have different personalities and the person and animal have to connect.

She also wanted to stress that it was important that people knew it was exactly what they wanted to do.

From the RSPCA’s point of view, Claire added: “We do like to know about a person’s lifestyle, if they work, what hours they work, what sort of house they live in and then we try and match the animal with the person.

“It is very confusing for an animal if they have to come back.”

The RSPCA will also insist on a home check before they let an animal go to a home.

For further details about adopting an animal from the RSPCA