How to make friends and influence people

When I go out for walkies with mummy, it’s not all about hunting and catching things but about finding things too. For me finding things is normally whatever is lying around that I come across, little apples, pine cones, occasionally a ball that smells of dog but one day something different happened. I heard a noise from somewhere above me and it was a familiar noise, it was another cat 🐈! I knew there were other cats around where I walk coz I can smell them when I’m walking around but I’ve never spoken to one before. He was very friendly but up high so couldn’t get down to see me and play with me. I could tell he wanted to but said his mummy and daddy didn’t let him out for walkies like I do with mummy. It’s ok though as we had a quick chat to introduce ourselves and then I carried on with my walkies.

Over the weeks I’ve met a few friends, some just sit and watch me from their homes – I think they’re jealous that I’m out for walkies and they’re not. Some of them I’ve met face to face but either way I always say hello and then I carry on exploring if they don’t want to play.

Then there’s Boris mummy’s friend Gigi’s dog who I’ve met face to face in the gardens whilst out walking. He was very noisy and barked at me a lot, as he’s a dog he thinks that barking at me will make me play with him. That’s all he wanted and mummy was there saying hello to him so I knew he wasn’t a mean dog. Now he just watches from the window and keeps very quiet, I think he knows that I can’t play with him like a dog can. Sometimes even my big brother Peppar likes to watch me from our balcony, I think he’s just checking that I’m ok.

There are also my friends that mummy and daddy look after when their parents are away, I know this as mummy sometimes comes home smelling of them after she says she’s off to feed my ‘cousins’. They are Jimmy and Amber and Habsi. I protect Habsi from Kit the neighbour cat who mummy says lives in the flats behind ours, Kit is a big cat and was making Habsi unhappy as Kit was going into his home and he didn’t like it. I thought it was very rude to go into someone else’s home without an invitation. I have met Kit before and he hissed at me big time but I wasn’t scared as I was with mummy and I like other cats. I tried to be friends with him but he didn’t like the fact that wasn’t scared of him and stomped off. Ever since then anytime he has seen me mummy says that he runs away from me, this is why I can help protect my friend Habsi from his home invader. Jenny to the rescue 😺

One day something even more exciting happened, I caught the scent of a cat 🐈, then I heard a chirp and a meow and pawsteps came towards me. I was a bit nervous (even though I was with mummy) as he came right up to me, I gave him a little warning hiss and mummy gave me a little reassuring cuddle, she was talking to me but also to the other cat saying “hello handsome”. We carried on with our walkies but with each few steps we took I could still hear the patter of paws 🐾 around me. I started to feel more relaxed and followed the pawsteps and that’s when I met Dashain. Now whenever I walk past his house and he’s there he comes out to say hello and we play and run about sometimes I follow him and sometime he follows me. Some days I make myself pretty for him by rolling around in the sand before I see him. We now look forward to seeing each other – if he’s in his house when I go past he shouts and shouts and paws at the door and if his mummy’s in she lets him out to see me. I think he’s my boyfriend now. Mummy says his name suits him as he is very dashing! Sometimes he plays hard to get and runs about with me following as best I can, he has invited me into his den under his home but mummy won’t let me follow him in there but I did go and have a look.

As well a furry friends I have also made some little human friends. One day mummy and I were out for walkies and when we were coming back there was lots of noise from one of the gardens which we had to cross to get back home. Each time we tried to cross these little humans would run across In front of us. There were quite a lot of them and for mini humans they made lots of noise; noises I wasn’t familiar with, loud footsteps, shouting, laughing and running so it was a bit scary. Mummy came up with an idea💡 as the little ones all seemed to want to come and say hello to me Mummy talked to the little humans and their parents and told them my story, she explained to them that I couldn’t see and therefore they had to all be very quiet and not run around if they wanted to say hello to me. Mummy made my lead very short and sat on the ground with me next to her. The little people started to come closer and I could hear them asking mummy questions, they asked lots of questions and mummy answered each one.

Why can’t Jenny see? What does Jenny eat? Where does she go to the toilet? Does she eat grass? Why do you take her for a walk? Can I touch her?

Mummy explained to all the little ones that if they wanted to stroke me (or any other pet) they should always ask first, she said that I only liked to be stroked in the direction of my fur and that they shouldn’t touch my head as it affects my hearing which is very sensitive to make up for me not being able to see.

As we sat there I could hear the little ones gathering round closer and closer, then I felt lots of little hands on me, I was scared at first but they were mostly quite gentle, if any were too heavy mummy would say to them “be gentle, she’s only little” and she would give me a stroke to let me know that she was there and I was ok. If they got too loud or excited mummy would just say “shhh you need to be quiet around Jenny or she’ll get scared”. As they stroked me some of the children said “wow, she’s so soft and fluffy”. Mummy told me afterwards that most of the children (as she called them) had never stroked a cat before, some had never seen a cat before and that one little girl had been scared of cats until she had seen me and that because I was being so good she was brave enough to touch me. The whole thing was a bit scary and I was very nervous having so many people around, especially as I had never met them before. They were noisier than I was used to and they all smelt and sounded different. After all the little ones went back to their homes mummy and I also went home with mummy telling me how proud she was of me and how brave I’d been. I was very proud of myself and that I had been able to help educate some of the people new in my life and show them that it’s ok to be a bit different.

Now every time we go out for walkies and any of the little ones see me they shout “Jenny!”, it doesn’t scare me anymore as I know them now and mummy always reminds them to be quiet, not to run after me and to just be calm. Most of them have been down to the gardens and played with me with a leaf or a stick or a feather which I enjoy as I like playing and chasing things. The little female one that was scared of me the first time used to come out to see me every time we walked past their door. Sometimes she would walk with mummy and I round the garden watching me explore and play, one day I heard her say that they would soon be moving, then she said to mummy “I’ll miss Jenny because I love her”. I felt very happy that I had made a difference to even just one little girl, who was scared of me at first but now said that she loved me, I hope she remembers me for ever as I will remember her, she was always very sweet and kind to me.

I have had lots of kindness shown to me by humans during my life so far, now I have been able to pass some of that kindness forward and help to educate some little humans who didn’t know much about cats before, let alone a blind one. They all now understand animals a bit more, how to behave around them and that being blind doesn’t make me less, it just makes me different.