The McLeo Fur Babies

We believe him to be a feral from birth. 

Benny was a scruffy malnourished young stray who took shelter in our greenhouse throughout the winter of 2016. After several months of scrounging food from us but keeping his distance we managed to catch Benny and took him to the vet in October 2017 in order to see if he was chipped and lost. He didn't have a chip and was assessed to be about an 18 month old complete male in a very poor condition. Benny was riddled with fleas, ticks, ear mites, worms, teeth full of plaque and badly irritated skin. We discussed his case with our vet. It was apparent to all of us that this little man needed a forever home, and we agreed to with the surgery that we would give him that chance.

After a hefty vet bill and several weeks of biting, scratching and hissing, including sending JP to the Doctors with a lacerated arm after taking him to a vet appointment, Benny slowly started to accept human interaction. Lisa has worked with him every day since and he has pretty much forgotten his feral roots, (except for when it comes to taking him to the vet, when he turns into the feline version of the Incredible Hulk!!)

Benny is now very much Lisa's mummy's boy. 

Benny, who has the loudest meow..........EVER!! (especially at 3am when he wants to play) enjoys playing with a feather waggler, a rough and tumble with Lily and Scooter, drinking cat milk and trying to catch the fish in our aquarium. 

Because of the way he enjoys lazing around in the greenhouse and follows Lisa everywhere like an eager to please puppy, Benny's nicknames are 'Ginger Loaf' and 'Dog'

Lily is a petite lady and our second fur baby. We first saw her when we were making a donation of food to the SSPCA rehoming centre in Drumoak.  Wherever we moved in the cattery, she ignored other viewers but kept looking and meowing at us. Our original cat, Bella had recently died of a massive heart attack and Benny was missing his friend, so we made enquiries about Lily, or Cathy as she was named in the shelter.

We discovered that Lily had previously lived in a home with over 30 cats. She had been surrendered to the Scottish SPCA following concerns for her welfare, and had been in their care for 4 weeks. We registered our interest and went to meet her a week later. Lily formed an instant bond with JP, melting his heart within minutes of being introduced by licking his face suckling his shirt, and trying to hide under his chin whilst purring. Needless to say, we adopted Lily, brought her to her forever home with us that same afternoon and cancelled our city break to York in order to settle her in. 

Very much the feline boss and matriarch in our house, Lily keeps the other cats in check, including Benny! Lily is quite the little diva, and most definitely JP's daddy's girl. Whenever he is gardening or working in the garage Lily insists on helping by either, digging up the earth he has just turned over, sleeping in his toolbox or walking over JP's classic Audi immediately after it has been polished. Lily loves playing with absolutely everything in sight, cuddling up with Benny and Scooter, but most of all, FOOD.

Her family nicknames are 'Lilybelle' and because of her typical tortoiseshell feisty nature, ' Little Miss'

Adopting our third fur baby, Scooter certainly wasn't planned!! We were approached by the Scottish SPCA and asked if we would give a forever home to a rescued stray 3 month old tortoiseshell kitten called Dita, who had recovering from a broken jaw, and who needed experienced owners to help introduce her to life as a pet. Initially we declined because we didn't want to risk jeopardising the bond between Benny and Lily, however when delivering food donated by our clients to the rehoming centre we were introduced to Dita. With her tiny meow and big black eyes which looked at us in a way that said 'can I have a forever home with you?' the rest as they say is history.

Scooter is a very vocal young lady who loves play time, her cuddles and like Lily, in typical tortoiseshell style... FOOD!

Benny and Lily have accepted Scooter into the family and she loves to cuddle up with them to sleep. Lily acts like her adoptive mother, and regularly puts her paws over her back whilst she grooms Scooter, sending her to sleep.

From January 2020, Scooter started to tentatively venture out into the world. She is very nervous of the outside environment, so she doesn't venture beyond the back garden. Whenever she does go outside, Benny and Lily are never more than a couple of metres from her and are teaching her how to play 'hide-and-seek' through the hedge and shrubs. 

Scooter has taken it upon herself to be Daisy's playmate and mentor in helping her settle into her new multi-cat family.

Daisy came to us in February 2020 after a her owner, one of our friends, made the difficult decision to rehome her to provide Daisy with a home that would be more suitable to her needs. She was adamant that Daisy was only going to be rehomed either by a family member or us, because of the way our own cats are cared for. 

After a few days of deliberation between Lisa and JP, we agreed to go and meet Daisy to assess if her temperament would fit in with the existing McLeo fur babies. It didn't take long to make the decision to give Daisy a new home and two days later she moved in.

The first couple of days were slightly challenging as Daisy had never lived, or interacted with other cats since leaving the litter as a kitten. Scooter was first to greet her and got growled and hissed at for her trouble. Benny and Lily walked in, saw Daisy and both gave the look of 'here we go again!!' and then just carried on as normal. Daisy took about 3 days to fully decompress from the stress of the move to a bigger multi-cat household, now she has very much made herself at home and been accepted by our other fur babies.

Daisy and Scooter are similar ages, with about two weeks between them. Through Scooter's persistence of trying to bond with Daisy they began playing together they are now quickly forging a strong bond as friends. 

Being the only long haired cat in the McLeo family and because of her unbelievably big tail, Daisy has earned the nickname "Furry Bum"