Tattle Tails - MTC out and about

"What greater gift than the love of a cat"

Charles Dickens

Tattle Tails

My Three Cats Bury's weekly blog

Touching base with the communities

Hi cat fans!

Jen here for the weekly blog post from My Three Cats - Bury, premium cat sitter.

This week it's a break from information overload and an update on things I've been up to over the past week and some pics of a few recent kitties I've had the pleasure of caring for.

Prestwich Clough Day

Sunday 17th May saw the first community event for My Three Cats, Bury, the lovely Prestwich Clough Day, to have a look at what this great event is all about please visit https://www.prestwichclough.co.uk.

This was my stall -

.....and this was me including the fabulous Kitty Rescue Bury's stall behind me.

It was great to meet so many people, have a good number of cat chats, and I've already met the kitties of one of the attendees following their enquiry on the day.

I didn't know what to expect going in to this day, I've never had a stall before but I loved it, I love chatting about animals, the stories, their quirks, and I met some wonderful people who help charities provide crucial rescue spaces for animals that need them. One of those was @Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary and I'm delighted to be a stall holder at their summer family fun day on Sunday 5th July 2026. Do come and see me there.

I've been thinking of fun things to have around the stall and do let me know if there's anything you think it would be PURRfect to win. I'm going to have a couple of games, lots of time to chat cats, and being a vet nurse I found that advice and general discussion, especially for new cat owners, was helpful (I hope those I spoke to agree!). Those discussions touched on a few topics that I'll be covering in future blog posts, including those focused on new cat adoptions, new owners and what to do, resource need and placement, outdoor vs indoor, lifestage information - including common development of age related diseases, stress and pheromone therapy, and more.

What is so touching is the care people have for their pets and wanting the best for them. That's where I and My Three Cats come in. Why consider a cat sitter instead of a cattery? The main reason is stress and what that can do to your cat. Many cat owners resist taking their cat in a carrier and to the vet as they get so stressed. Taking a territorial animal in to a brand new place, with no known scents, with multiple other cat smells, sights, and sounds, is stress inducing. Although some cats cope very well some won't and especially with our boy cats that stress can have significant physiological reactions, such as stress cystitis. There are steps you can take as cat owners to minimise the risk of such things occurring (to be covered in a later post) and one is to keep your cats in their territory. I will never pick up a cat, stroke a cat, interact with a cat how they don't want. I sometimes have to as a nurse but cats don't understand why I have to do things they've not consented to. What, I hear you say, consent? Yes, cats will show you if they consent to you stroking them, to your engaging with them in particular ways. They can be fastidious in nature and they'll let you know their standards! It's important for me to always try and understand what those standards and requirements are and give every cat the reassurance I'm there to exceed them. Most cats instinctively know cat people and if it takes them time to trust that's absolutely fine, but they're more likely to in their own home, in their own routine, than out of it.

One of my first clients has an extremely handsome but wary Ragdoll, Gizmo, pictured below. Isn't he gorgeous!

In each picture I was sat and Gizmo came closer, I never went toward him, except when I had to get in the kitchen to given him and his sister, gorgeous Salem who was pictured previously, their food! Luckily Gizmo loves his food and would interact with a dreamie catching game but strokes or anything further than him sniffing my feet/legs isn't allowed yet. I love that he was comfortable enough to lie down, although still on alert, and that he was heading to his usual space on the cat tree with me in the room. I was super proud of him and his owner was happy she could finally get away. This is what Sarah had to say:

"Jen has been absolutely fantastic with looking after my 2 cats, one of them is very wary and reactive around new people which has been a huge source of anxiety for me with wanting to go away. Jen gives great updates at every visit, and I know my cats are being well looked after, with the knowledge of her being able to spot quickly if something isn’t quite right. She has given me the confidence to finally go on holidays and not stress!"

This is why I started this business and bought in to the My Three Cats ethos. Our campaign 'Cats deserve more' is absolutely true and so do their owners.

So if you've sacrificed holidays as you're not sure of trusting someone or they have very specific medical needs please reach out. I'm always happy to have an informal chat and help where I can.

On a personal note, not MTC related:

One last thing is that I will be doing a 100km walk over a weekend in June to raise funds for the MS Society. If anyone can donate and sponsor me in this personal challenge I'd be ever so grateful, as would all those who suffer with, and family of those with, this horrid debilitating disease.

The Just Giving link is https://www.justgiving.com/page/jenny-taylor-1736115012894.

As always, if there is a topic you'd like me to discuss please reach out and let me know, or to ask about availability and bookings. You can reach me on01613077598, e-mail me at [email protected].ukor contact me via Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or pop an enquiry through on our contact form.

Thank you for reading, and hope to be chatting with you soon.

Jen x

(plus Chester, Phoebe, and Mickey - my 3 kitties - it's co-incidence, or meant to be!)