What’s it like to travel half way round the world to a new home?

It all started very early in the morning with Anna waking up me, Axel and our other companion, I didn’t want to get up yet as I was still really sleepy. I might be blind but I could still tell it was unusually early and this made me wonder what was going on.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have worried as Anna only ever did what was best for us. I didn’t know at the time that this would be the second time my life would change for the better.

There was a lot of activity going on in the shelter and I kept next to Axel for reassurance, he wasn’t sure what was going on either. The three of us kittens were put into a large crate and that’s when we got really nervous.

Anna and her friends tried to reassure us but then I heard them saying goodbye – I didn’t want to leave the safety of the shelter that I had called my home recently and Anna was my human friend, she had saved me and I didn’t want to leave her either.

We had a long journey, first to the airport to catch a flight to Athens, then another to Amsterdam, followed by a Eurostar train journey to England and finally we were put into a van (with dogs as well) for the last leg of our journey. I was scared the whole way as I have never even heard of these forms of human transport let alone been on them, there were scary smells and sounds too. I had no idea what was going on. At least my friends and I were all going through it together though. At least that’s what I thought until…

One by one (with some travelling in between) my friends, my companions, my family were taken from the crate and didn’t come back – eventually I was all alone. Where had they gone? Why didn’t they come back? What was happening? Would I be last to suffer the same fate as them? Was this it for me?

Then at about 9:30pm and about 16 hours of exhausting travelling the crate was taken out of the van, I was the only one left in it, all alone…was this it? My short life was about to be over, the same fate as the others. We went up some stairs and then I heard some voices talking – it wasn’t in my language so I didn’t know what they were saying but they took the crate and I could hear it opening, my heart was racing and so to calm myself I started purring to reassure myself. I felt some hands reach in and touch me gently, I was picked up and was given a reassuring cuddle and stroke, someone spoke to me quietly and calmly and I recognised someone saying my name ‘Jenny’.

I had met my new family for the first time.