An ode to my dearest cat, on his first gotcha day.
ONLY Cat Print striped tshirt dress // Pepe Jeans denim jacket // Apple Watch // Vans Galaxy print sneakers
Trixie Cat Harness on Thelma | @thelmacatola
Photos by Sheila Vaz
On 28th July 2015 (exactly one year ago) I dressed up & got out of my house. It was in many ways a regular day in my life – it was super rainy, & I had planned a few work & personal appointments. Attending a press preview, meeting a friend for lunch (& discussing travel!) But my last appointment was kind of special because I was going to be brining home my first ever set of foster kittens that evening!
I’d always been a cat person, so getting fosters was no big deal right? It seemed like a good way to be a part of the stray animal rescue + rehabilitation process without making the long term commitment of adopting a cat. Well, I didn’t know it then but my life has just changed in so many ways since that day. Of course we decided to adopt one of our fosters, Thelma (who turned out to be a boy, joke’s on us) after his darling brother sadly passed away.
Thelma is one of the biggest cats you’ll meet (seriously, he weights over 8 kgs right now, in stark contrast to the 400 gms he weighed when he came home). He’s sassy, obstinate, slightly glutinous & very loving. As Thelma was a rescue cat, it’s not possible to celebrate his birthday (we don’t know when he was born) so adoptive pet parents tend to celebrate a gotcha day instead, marking the anniversary from when you bring home your pet.
Nowadays I’m sometime’s awoken by a cat biting my feet (hard!) Scratches are commonplace & hardly noteworthy. My life has changed in so many ways, & I wouldn’t have it any other way! Happy First Gotcha Day Thelma, & here’s to many more.
I’d been promising ‘The Pet Tag‘ video on my YouTube channel for a while & I finally did it-
This particular set of photos was taken about a month & a half ago, with the intention of being published exactly today. And in the meantime, we kinda sorta went & adopted another kitten, which you can hear more about in the video!
I can’t write this post without giving a special shout out to World For All Animal Adoptions for the amazing work they do with rescuing stray dogs & cats in Mumbai (I’ve always fostered through them, they put out regular appeals on their facebook page) & to Jewel from Meow’s Home for running a homely & loving cat boarding house, so we can take occassional family vacations (human-only, lol) & still know that our feline family members are in the best hands.
I wore Kylie Lip Kit in Candy K in these photos, full review will be up on my YouTube channel soon!
And finally, this might be one of my favorite photos to come out of this set, Thelma look’s like he’s screaming for HALP (internally of course)! x
