Otto

Every home should have an Otto-cat. He’s fluffy, silky and soft to the touch, and always manages to lighten any feelings of tension after a long day at work. His mother is a black and white cat who followed David and I home after a short evening walk back in 2012; I was living with my mom at the time who (surprisingly!) allowed her to come and live with us. My younger sister, Kate, named her Tiggy, and it wasn’t long before her stomach began to swell with the promise of some cat-babies… A few months later, David and I had moved into a new house and were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the kittens since we’d already decided that we’d love for one of them to come and live with us. It was a Sunday when I received the excited phone-call from Kate announcing the arrival of the kittens – four tiny, squirming, black and white babies. We asked to have the cat that was had the most black on it, since David had always loved black cats. 

We had already decided on the name Otto (a German boy’s name) beforehand, and we got to bond with him when we visited my mom over the following weeks. He came to live with us at Christmas-time in 2012 when he was around 10-weeks-old, and he has been a most welcome member of our family ever since. We’ve enjoyed watching him grow up over the last couple of years, maturing into a strong, spirited - and extremely hungry - cat: he never stops thinking about food…but then again, neither do we, so we are definitely three of a kind.

October is Otto's birthday month and this year he has turned two, so today we thought we'd share some of our favourite Otto-photos to celebrate. Over time, we’ve come to realise how common Otto’s markings are, spotting numerous ‘Otto clones’ (as we call them!) in photos in the Internet; it always makes us chuckle. We know that having a cat with unusual markings is usually preferred, but for us, Otto is the most perfect cat in the world - he's 'our' cat and we are 'his' humans :) 

Ellie