Short Tails 10 – Bella, The Very Angry Cat

Rather than casting my eye back over our last 2.5 years of traveling, this edition of Short Tails is about something that happened very recently – within the last week in fact! We have many fun stories from our house sitting around the world, but I want to get this one down while it’s fresh.

Bella, The Very Angry Cat

We’re currently house sitting in Adelaide, Australia. It’s a lovely home just outside the city center where we are caring for two house cats, Sasha and Bella. Our placement here is for about a month and we are just over halfway through our stay. Adelaide is a cool city, it has beaches, great hikes, a vibrant city center, and some cool historic sites.

The cats are both pretty adorable, Sasha is very loving and likes to be around humans as often as possible. On the other hand, Bella despises all other living things – except for her owner Lorraine.

For the most part, Bella keeps to herself. She enjoys the freedom of the house at night and hisses at us whenever we get too close. It’s a funny situation and although we try not to aggravate things, seeing the disdain she has for us has been quite amusing. Lorraine pre-warned us that Bella is ‘a bit of a bitch’ – her words, not mine!

Bella the Angry Cat Gets Sick

Dealing with sick pets is part and parcel of house sitting. We have certainly had our fair share of pet-related issues after 30+ house sitting placements. My previous Short Tails article – When Giant Dogs Get Sick is another story of what happened when a pet in our care got sick.

Back to Bella. About two weeks in, we noticed Bella was not eating her full complement of food. She’s a bit chunky (again Lorraine’s words, not mine!) so this in itself was a bit curious, but it was also evident she was having some tummy troubles. After a few days of keeping an eye on things, we contacted Lorraine and she advised taking Bella to the vet for a check-up.

Our initial response was, ‘Erm, any advice on how to get her in a crate?’. She provided a few suggestions but alluded to the fact that it was going to be tricky.

Operation Cat Trap

Bella has a temper and mixed in with her aforementioned hatred of EVERYONE, it was going to be difficult and risky getting hold of her. She doesn’t like to be petted, stroked, or otherwise interacted with.

But needs must and we had a plan to lure her into the outside secure courtyard, position the cat crate flush to the cat flap, and then usher her back into the house and the awaiting crate. Needless to say, this did not work in the slightest. Bella saw the crate and immediately went into fight mode.

Resorting to plan B we had her cornered and managed to gently place a towel on her, limiting her scratching and biting potential, or so we thought. Hannah went for a gentle grab but was met by a fierce set of fangs plunging into her hand and drawing blood. She quickly ran inside to wash the wound and stop the pretty significant bleeding.

The Capture

With Bella out of the corner, I managed to get her near the crate and again covered with a towel. This time she was on her belly so I could grab her from the top. After a few more biting attempts and plenty of hissing, I successfully got hold of the poorly kitty and successfully secured away in the travel crate. It was 8 am and I felt like I needed a stiff drink.

A Trip to the Vets

Knowing she was beaten, Bella transformed from an angry cat into a malleable, loving cat at the vet. It was the first time we had actually got to stroke her. Hannah and I referred to it as like breaking a horse, maybe we had finally won her round.

Thankfully the vet was not too concerned and gave Bella a full check over. After an injection to stop the sickness, some pro-biotics, and special food, we were back home. The excellent vet was confident that by Monday, Bella should be back to her normal self.

Returning home and releasing the little lioness into her usual surroundings she allowed for one final pet before hissing at me, angrier than ever, and running away. Evidently, not a broken horse at all!

A Trip to the Doctors

Hannah’s hand was quite sore and bruised, she got a full-on cat bite, fangs in all the way, from Bella. So on advice from the vet, we made a GP appointment right away. The nice doctor cleaned up the injury and prescribed 5 days of antibiotics. Fingers crossed by Monday all 3 females in this house will be fighting fit again!

Anyway, it was one of the more eventful Friday mornings we’ve had house sitting!

House Sitting in Adelaide

It was a chaotic morning but memorable tales such as these occur when you are house sitting around the world. We wouldn’t change it for a second. We accept a duty of care and responsibility when taking on someone’s home, and Bella the very angry cat is a perfect example of having to step up to the mark when something goes wrong.

Australia is the third biggest market globally for house sitting opportunities. Behind the USA and the UK, thousands of Australian homes are listed regularly on sites like Trusted Housesitters.

We have been able to extend our stay in OZ to 3 months using just house sitting placements. If you’d like to know more about house sitting in Australia or anywhere else, check out my previous article – Everything You Need to Know About Trusted Housesitters.

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