The cat story so far...
I met Jeff when I first moved to Manchester. He was originally found by my landlord as a stray on the streets of Longsight in Manchester.
See live pictures of Jeff - click here
He was missing a lot of fur back then, had a terrible ear mite problem and had befriended my landlord because he used to leave food out for him.
He gradually found his way into the house and was adopted by Gavin and his wife. Thinking he was a girl at the time, they called him 'Audrey' (because of his huge green eyes, like Audrey Hepburn's), but after taking him to the vets and discovering that he was a boy, decided to call him 'Hepburn'. He was later renamed Jeff.
I took over the house from the previous tenants and, after being used to having a dog, and never being particularly fond of cats beforehand, I wasn't too sure about what it would be like to look after a cat.
'Cats aren't as affectionate as dogs - they're just aloof, aren't as lovable as dogs and don't really care about anyone but themselves', I remember thinking at the time.
How wrong I was!
OK, he's aloof, but that's just part of the appeal! He had the largest eyes I'd ever seen in a cat and was incredibly cute, impossibly furry, relentlessly playful and cheeky with it!. I never realised before I met Jeff how much character cats can have, and after only having spent a few hours with him, knew that we would not be parted.
I decided to move from Longsight eventually but was a little nervous about taking Jeff from his home environment.
Thankfully, the internet is a marvellous resource for information on just about anything and I soon found that, although moving house is not ideal for a cat, they can quite easily adapt to a new place if you follow certain guidelines.
By then, I'd found a lovely house in Salford Quays. A very quiet, peaceful area of Manchester with lots of space in which a young cat can play safely. We moved in and Jeff took to his new surroundings surprisingly quickly. After just a couple of weeks, he was strutting around the neighbourhood like he owned it!
We recently moved house again (to Chorlton in Manchester) and have settled in quite well now. We have a large back garden now and plenty of surrounding greenery in which Jeff can adventure and scare off the neighbouring cats.
I hope you enjoy this site and if you happen to catch Jeff on the Jeffcam, please send me your pictures!
