Always dreamed of having your own Cattery?

Papa Boe, Boe Boe and Baby Boeboe

As a child, Veerle only had rabbits and hamsters as pets at home. When she moved out and started living with a good friend, they quickly got two cats. They named these cats after their childhood stuffed animals, and that was also the moment Veerle knew she never wanted to live without cat(s) again!

In the meantime, she has her own Cattery with a total of 14 cats (but also a chameleon, a leopard gecko, and a large aquarium). This started with one very special cat... Boelie, a Blue Point Scottish Fold. When they went to pick him up, they also saw his father. He was outside in a cage, together with other (not neutered) tomcats! You can of course guess that this was a big territorial matter. The tomcats were fighting each other. "We couldn't bear to watch this and soon decided that we would also like to include Boelie's father (whom we had meanwhile nicknamed Boeboe) in our pack." You read that right: pack, because after Boeboe's arrival, they had adopted more cats. When Boeboe's father came to live with us, we called him Papa Boe.

After his castration and other surgeries, he recovered quickly and slowly grew into the leader of our pack. Something beautiful happened shortly after that: Boeboe became a father! One kitten looked exactly like him, so we decided to keep him. He was named: Baby Boeboe. Although Baby Boeboe is currently bigger than his father, giving him a different name is impossible. For Veerle, he will always remain baby Boeboe!

A beautiful pack with all lovely cats

Most of Veerle's cats are still young, between 0 and 4 years old. With the exception of the large pack leader Papa Boe, who is already 10 years old. In addition to Scottish Folds, she also has British Shorthairs, British Longhairs, and a Norwegian Forest Cat with which she also breeds litters. They no longer breed Scottish Fold cats themselves.

Veerle's cats literally mean everything to her. "They sense you so well and are always there for you." Veerle's Cattery consists of very sweet cats; all the cuddles, head bumps, and purrs are great additional benefits of having cats.

Of course, there are not only advantages. Because Veerle is so devoted to her cats, it affects her deeply when something happens to them. Unfortunately, she has also had a number of unpleasant experiences. It was very difficult and painful for Veerle when they had to put a cat to sleep at the age of 4 because she was incorrectly bred by the breeder she came from. "We have also experienced kittens being stillborn, and although this is nature, it breaks your heart..."

However, if it were up to Veerle, she would take even more cats. "Luckily I have a man in my life who can slow this down a bit." After they had set up the entire attic in his house for the cats, Veerle and all the animals moved in with him. It was a bit of an adjustment for him, so much life in the house! Fortunately, her husband already knew the cats well and is secretly very attached to them, even if he doesn't always admit it.

How did they arrange the attic? "Full of Cat trees from RHR Quality of course, the Cat trees from RHR are very sturdy and also last a very long time!" Currently we have 6 large Cat trees from RHR. Namely the Cat Pleasure, Maine Coon Sleeper, Kilimandjaro, 2x the Main Coon Tower Box Comfort & the Maine Coon Tower Cat Tree. 5 of these are in the attic and 1 cat tree is in the kitten room where the expectant mother cats can give birth calmly and safely.

Veerle's cats like to lie close together, so having about 8 cats on one pole happens regularly. The sturdiness is therefore very important! Also because all the female cats like the big leader Papa Boe (who weighs 10kg!), so they like to lie against him all together. Furthermore, they really use all the resting spots on all the Cat trees, but the hammocks are definitely favorites! Because Veerle finds it so important that her cats are real pets, they go everywhere in the house. Throughout the house, she has several separate Lounge resting boxes with cushions in them, so they can lie comfortably everywhere.