A month ago, I was making this snap with the biggest announcement that I am going to have... another cat. Yeah, I am nearly 30 and the single announcements I can make lately are that another cat joined the family, lol.
From my point of view, there is nothing wrong with this, as in fact I believe that not everyone should have kids, just like not everyone should own pets. The reasons... are many. And obviously, there will always be different opinions, so I won't debate too much about it.
However, the one I want to speak about today and whom my post is dedicated to, is Bretonel, whose name makes a lot more sense in Romanian, but in English it could be translated something like "Little Bangs". That comes because of the unequal sides of black fur on his face, where the one from the right makes me think about owning a rebel bang.
But as time passed, we realised that the name is a bit too long for him to remember, so we reduced it to "Bret" or "Brety", to which he is already answering. But I still enjoy presenting it to my family and friends as Bret Pitt, the typo being intentional as it's an abbreviation of his actual name.
In December 2023, I, my bf and my father decided to build up a shelter outside our window because ever since I adopted Sky I was constantly feeding his mother, siblings and literally any other cat that was popping on our window. So with the winter approaching, we thought about making the little house, which we insulated thermally to make sure it will take care of them. Sadly, there were some bad events happening with some of the cats after placing the house outside the window because my neighbourhood is placed, basically in an open field, which attracted some wild animals looking for a shelter too.
Anyway, with the passage of time, the house stopped serving as an actual home for any of the cats we take care of, but more like a hospital because every time one was wounded, it was sleeping there so I can constantly check it out and offer extra support, but also as a place where they come for fresh food and water 24/7.
That's how the number of cats I was taking care of during this time fluctuated quite a bit, jumping from 11 cats to be fed at the same time to around 5, but never less than these. I actually dedicated some space of the wall above my computer to serve as a little altar or hall of fame with some of the cats that passed by and I and my boyfriend took care of during the last 3 years, most of them actually sitting on that tiny house we've built. These are around half of the cats we took care and most likely, at some point, we will complete this wall with even more pictures.
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The story with Bret, though, is so much different from any of the others we faced before.
Bret is a male with an age of around 10 months, if we are not mistaken, who dropped by our window around 2 months ago, being very scared at first and keeping his tail always to the ground, which made us confused whether he is a male or a female. He was returning every single night between 9 PM to 11 PM to eat and realized quickly that he is going to be safe around us, both I and my bf loving cats and taking care well of each one passing by, but also that he has a friend he could socialize with through the window, which was Sky.
After one week, a neighbour stopped by our window while we were feeding Bret and said that he had spayed him recently and that's why he was keeping his tail down, the surgery being still a thing. But after Bret started trusting us, he became very curious, playful and loving with both me and Sky while we were sitting by the window when he was visiting us.
None of the other cats we fed before had this behaviour. There are the sister and mother of Sky, whom we were constantly feeding since we had Sky (almost 3 years), and neither of them accepts being caressed, which is fine, as each cat has its own behaviour. But being used to a bit more wild felines, it was adorable to see him so loving and eager to meet us after just a few days since we met.
Despite the other cats, Bret was also the only one who respected his visiting schedule, coming in the evening or during the night, which also led to making Sky stressed and a bit anxious whenever he was not coming by, both of us wondering if something bad had happened to him.
Happily, he was never missing more than one day, and the reunions were very sweet, even if both Sky and Bret are males.
Bret's behaviour wasn't the single thing that surprised me, but also how Sky was acting because he grew up seeing lots of cats stop by our window, and he never was interested in socialising with any of them until meeting Bret. We thought that he might have possibly felt that he was spayed and that they had more in common than Sky had with the rest. However, Sky's sister was also spayed at an early age, and they never really went along much, other than staying very close to each other. Actually, if we were to adopt another cat indoors, then we would have been all in for Sky's sister because she lost one eye and we wanted to make her feel safer, but she is a bit more wild than the rest and failed to do so. So we are now grateful even just to see her coming to eat and know she is fine.
Anyway, the interactions between Sky and Bret happened for almost one month, where I let them smell each other and allow Bret to step on the inner window sill, where I noticed that Sky had no interest in dominating him or protecting his territory, but actually grabbed his tail and invited him to play inside the house.
For two weeks I kept speaking with my bf if we should adopt Bret or not since we leave in a rented studio room where the space is very limited and the owner of the house doesn't know about Sky either, until one night when we've seen two or three of the other cats we were feeding attack Bret one by one and force him to leave the neighborhood, perhaps, because they felt him being different (spayed).
It was a long night, running between the cars and trying to keep Bret safe because he was too scared to follow us home and adopt him that night, but also run into fights with some of the stupid neighboors that tried to accuse us for hurting the cats (because of the sounds they were making while fighting), almost calling police for that. Yet the same neighbours that are well known for trying to poison the homeless animals that come into the complex where we are living.
That's when the longest period of not seeing Bret happened, bringing lots of stress, frustration and feeling guilty for not adopting him that night, until one day, when he made him again by our window. He was very scared, hungry, and constantly looking all around him not to be attacked again by another cat, but it was my single chance to finally adopt him.
I started by placing the food on the inner window sill he was already used to, and as soon as he finished eating, I invited him to explore his new home and buddy, Sky.
I quickly arranged for him a litter box, sleeping bed and bowls with food and water in the bathroom, because coming from the outside, I wanted to first make sure he is not sick and could share any illness with Sky. I only kept him locked inside the bathroom during the night when he was sleeping anyway, while when I and Sky were awake, they could explore the house freely.
This was also the moment when the playful Sky turned into the Big Wise Brother who was accompanying Bret everywhere, letting him have his portion of food, play with his toys, explore his beds, and literally anything that had a single owner so far.
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Next day in the morning, we made it to the vet where we found out he has otitis and ear mites which forced us to keep him away from Sky at least two more nights, yet a timeframe when we had some injections made to him, got a treatment for the ears, but also the first dose of disinfestation when he was going to eliminate pretty much all the parasits in his litter box that could make these look out for a new victim which in this case could only be Sky.
Happily, despite being very energic Bret was very dutiful when I was applying his treatment and had a lot of patience with it. But the veterinary clinic we are going to has two doctors. I was constantly making it with Bret to just one of the two vets because it's a lot more specialized with cats, until one day when she was missing and I was forced to let the other one treat Bret, which also caused some trouble, taking the wrong decision and have the otitis and ear mites return more powerful than ever despite having them almost gone at the time of the medical consultation.
This led to a lot more money spent on treatments, meds, and rides to the clinic, but also to anger for not having my 2nd baby treated well. He was already under treatment for a while, and I was scared not to make him lose his patience and not accept this anymore.
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But with lots of love, toys to play with, and being spoiled every single minute of the day, Bret turned into a real tomcat, still very hyperactive in comparison with Sky, but also mature.
So, even if I wanted to make this post earlier, all the health issues and troubles with the vets made me stay away from writing this until life started to follow a slower rhythm.
It took us 4 weeks to treat him properly, and 2 days ago we were able to finally bring him the vaccine, which he couldn't get because of being ill, which makes us a bit more relaxed now thinking that he is finally healthy.
Even if there were no signs of domination or time needed to get used to each other, with the days passing by and Bret becoming more used with the new life that he welcomed with lots of love and excitement (never asking or meowning to get back outside), he brought in some stress to Sky as he is not used to play as much as Bret. So even when he gets exhausted, there is literally no chance to stop playing until Bret wants to, leading him to have some urinary problems, which we are currently dealing with and consume our time, energy, money and attention for the next amount of time.
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Being the first time when we were getting inside another cat, it was very stressful, being scared not to bring any lethal disease to Sky, or become aggressive to each other, or who knows what else. That's why I took the time to realise that our indoor family got bigger because the adrenaline and frenetic rhythm of constantly going with Bret to the vet and taking care of how they play not to harm each other, kept me busy for the last month, both physically and mentally.
Bret tried to get closer to Sky and wash him, but as Sky was always independent, he's still a bit reticent but still looked out to Bret and found a close place to sleep near him. I don't know how much it will take until they start washing each other or even sleeping together, as it can also never happen, but so far I am happy to see them together, healthy, and happy and I'm patiently waiting for them to adjust their level of playing so it's comfortable for both of them.
We already purchased a device that is supposed to share pheromones in the air and help Sky with his anxiety and stress, but I don't know how else we could help them with this. There is at least one year and a half age difference between them, so we expect to take at least one more year for Bret before slowing down the rhythm with his playing.
It's funny how one month passed and I am still very fascinated by everything Bret does. I love the thing that I can be home pretty much all the time and observe his evolution especially that he was always picking the most cold and dirty places for sleeping (being used with the outdoors life) until he finally made it to some of the Sky's beds and can see him act now like a happy kiddo, feeling like he made it to paradise.
Anyway, this is Bret Pitt and his unique story that conquered the hearts of all those who heard it so far, so we hope you enjoyed reading it, even if it turned out a bit longer than planned. I promise to read all the comments this post will get to both Sky and Bret, and we are grateful for any possible advice coming from owners of more cats, regarding our little problems mentioned so far.
With love,
Gabriela, Sky & Bret Pitt 🐾
Other cat-related posts I wrote:
- Meet Sky - the kittie with the blue eyes 💙
- I and Sky just had our first Photoshoot
- First Holidays together with Sky and some thoughts
- Building up an Outdoor Shelter for Sky's family
- Welcome to the family, Bret Pitt!
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.