Niall and I love cats. It’s just a fact of life. Neither of us can go past one without commenting, coaxing squeaking or attempting to cajole the little one over. So I’m going to open my heart to you today. Our beautiful little cat Ed died suddenly just 7 days after we left the UK. He was an absolute one in a million beastie. A loyal companion, a gorgeous, purry, shiny, shouty cat and an absolute dream cat all in equal measures. Life will never be quite the same without him, and the house will be a lot quieter.
As any animal lover will appreciate our hearts were pretty broken, it had been hard enough to leave Ed already. In fact, I’d been searching for cats to stroke in Granada since we arrived because I missed him so much, but we hadn’t found any. No street cats, no pampered moggies lazing about in the Cármenes, no sign of any at all. I started to worry about it so much that Niall even googled ‘where are the cats in Granada?’ for me. Alas, we found no leads….that is until the day we visited the Alhambra.
Where are the Cats?!
It turns out all of the cats are living in the Alhambra!
It stands to reason really that they would be living in a Palace. You know what cats are like; they think of themselves as extremely high and mighty, they're practically royalty after all. How silly of us not to think to look there sooner! The sight of them all strutting around like they owned the place warmed the cockles of my aching heart (that’s not to say I’m not concerned about neutering and the management of the cats so if anyone does have any information about how that works please do let me know).
The cats were there. Tiny grey stripy sweeties, big cuddly looking (don’t cuddle them!!) ginger tom’s and even a little gang of stubby legged kittens roaming the gardens of the Alhambra ready to pounce on anyone who looked like they might have some ice cream or jamón up for grabs. It was glorious and just absolutely exactly what we needed. I think I took more cat photos than I did of the architecture. No regrets. I might even buy some cat treats and head back up before we leave.
It's hard to leave treasured pets at home when you go travelling, but there are always animals on your travels if you know where to look, and your own pets always remain there in your heart. Seeing the little Alhambra cats really made my day, and I hope that on the next adventure, in our new destination, we’ll find plenty more cats to make a fuss of. Now to learn “Can I stroke your dog please?” in Spanish…”¿Por favor, puedo acariciar a su perro?”
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