Group Luck

Rainbow Bridge

As a child, Bettina did have a cat, but not for a long time after that. It was only in the year 2000 that she took in another European Shorthair, Baghira, a proud sovereign big cat. ‘Unfortunately, I had to let her go over the rainbow bridge a few years back at the proud age of 20,’ Bettina tells us. Since Baghira, more family members gradually joined.

Balu, the bear of the group is a typical red male cat, he is now 12 years old but still a real whirlwind at times. Because a friend of Bettina's unintentionally got kittens, they decided to get one. Balu was with Baghira at the time, so when Baghira died, Balu couldn't be left alone. ‘Robbie came to us when he was just weeks old, he was bottle-raised because his mother had died, but he was a real go-getter’ tells Bettina, who always thought she had an ADHD cat “ sleeping through the night was unthinkable the first few weeks”.

Rest for seniors

Then came Yoko and Nuka (now both 3 years old), the two
Bengalis play together so brilliantly told Bettina, that no film can match it.
They provide a lot of entertainment, and Bettina and her husband make sure that
they all interact well socialized.

Because soon after that, Amadeus joined the group, a bit of
a rascal, but also a sensitive tomcat who got a new playmate a few months ago,
namely Dante. "This relieves the seniors a bit," says Bettina, who
has made sure that there is enough entertainment in the apartment. The two
ceiling-high scratching posts help with this. Bettina says that the group
rotates, they are all in the hammocks or in the large lounger. But it is mainly
Amadeus who races up and down like a spider on the Maine
Coon Tower.

Close-knit group

By now, Bettina has a lovely group that is in complete harmony. But besides Balu and Robbie, they also had a Bengal cat named Mojo for some time. He unfortunately only lived to be 4, because he fell ill. At first, he was totally unsocialised, but they got that under control pretty quickly. ‘He was a dream cat, and it hit me hard when he died’ tells Bettina, but it wasn't just her who was affected by this. Because she did not show him to Balu and Robbie at the clinic. This upset the group, they refused food, did not play and were constantly looking for him.