After a night of worrying whether or not our boat would be able to sail from Malta to Sicily, we were relieved to reach the port and find that the container ship we were booked on was indeed scheduled to leave.
On board with us were seven cats and three mice belonging to Julie, who works for Defra, and Colin, who designs video games. The couple arrived in Malta last year from Grimsby with three cats and three mice. Black-and-white mouse Jasmine and silver mouse Pearl were destined to be snake food before Julie rescued them. Brown mouse Bud was a wild mouse rescued from the jaws of Meo the cat — Bud stayed on with the family after convalescing.
Living next to a field in Malta, Julie and Colin were soon adopted by a family of seven more cats! When the time came to return to the UK, Julie would have brought all of them with her, but felt that three of the kittens were simply too feral to make the move. So she went to great lengths to introduce them into an outdoor cat colony, which worked out very well. So travelling with us are the three mice, the three original UK cats, and four Maltese cats: mum Grace and her three kittens.
Julie realised how easy it is to become involved with the cats on Malta. If she and Colin had stayed longer, she was planning to work as a volunteer with the colonies. The strays we saw and blogged about in our last post all looked remarkably healthy — unlike some of the places we visit, there seems to be quite a lot of harmony between the cats and the local community.
At the port we were once again amazed at how pets can be a great leveller. A very strict-looking port official checking our van broke into a huge smile when he saw our cargo of cats. ‘I have 11 cats,’ he told us, and proceeded to make cooing sounds and pretend tickles with his fingers. He was clearly hoping we’d open the compartments so he could give them all a cuddle!
From Sicily we crossed to the Italian mainland and headed to Bari, where we met up with courier M2. He took charge of Julie and Colin’s family to speed their journey to Nottingham in the UK, while couriers J and M continue towards Greece.
Some story of the cats and the mice! Beautiful passengers, all of them!
Julie & Colin are obviously animal magnets!
Did the cats know about the mice?
We suspect the cats have known about the mice from the get go but have grown bored of not being able to ‘play’.
I also was curious about the cat and mouse combination Julie has going on there!! Whatever makes them all happy is good!! 🙂 Great story and pictures, too!!
Glad you were able to keep everyone on the move to the right places…amazing work you all do.
Got to love people who take in needy animals! Journeys of this length can be complicated and we try to make sure than no passenger has to be on board for too long.
May the Patron Saints of cats and mice protect you…truly. And bless you for what you do for the creatures.
Mice seem remarkably relaxed among a cargo of cats! Glad to see Malta has now become a regular destination for Animal Couriers -third trip since Nov. Of course my turtles, axolotls and African snails historic journey will always be remembered as the first “pioneer” travellers to Malta in your newly adapted van!
You were certainly the ground breaker! How are your pioneer turtles, axolotls and African snails? Hope you’ve all settled well on that lovely island.
What a crowd on that trip……….how wonderful all those kitties got a forever home – it’s amusing that cats were traveling with mice…..!!
Pam
Julie & Colin have big hearts! We suspect the cats have lost interest in the mice as they’ve lived a long time together and ‘playtime’ isn’t really on the cards 😀
nice to hear from you with your latest adventures and fine cats. Cleo looks a bit like my late, great Pandora so, of course, she stole my heart . . .
Ah, Pandora must have been a beauty!
That sounds like a fairy tale….one I can only dream about 😀 Have a save trip. Pawkisses 🙂 <3
Thanks LB, it’s a great adventure!
I am sure the mice are disappointed they didn’t get equal time in photographs. 🙂 Hard to compete with Sam, however. –Curt
Having managed to get three rather dreadful photos of Jasmine, we decided that mice really aren’t interested in the limelight 😀
As always, it is a joy to check out your newest selection of furry passengers. I hope they all find themselves in loving homes before all is said and done. 🙂
They’re all heading to one very loving home!
Good. I do love a happy ending. 🙂
what beautiful kitties and a good looking mouse what a great story. safe travels
Incredible how some people amass waifs and strays!
Careful handling required!
Oh indeed!
Syd & Chockie have lovely markings – have a safe journey back! 🙂
Haven’t they! We were very relieved when they popped out to show themselves 🙂
That’s quite a collection of cats. I’m surprised the mice are relaced, but then I suppose they’re used to cats around!
You got it Clowie – they know that ‘playtime’ isn’t on the cards 😉
After reading about how those in Malta treat street cats and cats in general, I’m in love with their country. What a wonderful place where cats are treated with so much care and concern. 🙂
We’ve been particularly struck by the people of Malta and how they look after their street cats – haven’t seen such lucky cat communities in many places!
7 cats and 3 mice? That is quite the match up isn’t it? hahaha!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Luckily all kept to themselves during the journey!
Grace looks a little like Savannah :o) that could be a challenge this time … hope you have enough kitty treats on board :o)
She does indeed look like Savvy. Luckily everyone had enough of the food they were supposed to have 😀
awww! mice! i have a mouse story to tell one day. jasmine is darling!
Doesn’t have anything to do with your slithery friends we hope 😉
NO! This one should have ended more happily than it did.
Hope to hear it one day…
Aw, bless! 😀
It is a lovely story of how they all came to live with Julie & Colin!
Grace could me my May’s sis! You certainly have some great adventures and meet such wonderful people. I love that you take the likes of me along! 🙂
Glad we can take you along with us on a virtual journey!
Hi, very nice story and pictures! How Simba is doing? Would it be possible to see any picture of him?
Hi Andrea, Simba’s doing just fine. We’ll ask courier M2 to send a pic.
Thank you! Loking forward to see the pic then!
How are they settling?
What a beautiful family. Made me smile when the port official had 11 cats, I guess a bit fitting for cat filled Malta 🙂
Yes, it is very fitting for a port official in Malta!
What a lovely story about Julie helping with the feral cats & caring enough to assist the 3 too feral ones to find a proper enviroment! That is one wonderful lady!
As for her menagerie: WOW!!
How she keeps the 7 cats & 3 mice together w/out incident is wonderful….
Safe trip to all of them & Julie & you & the Couriers of course!
Love Sherri-Ellen & Siddhartha Henry <3 <3
We think Julie did so well to get the really feral cats accepted into a local community – often they find it very difficult to move to new locations, especially if living outside isn’t so easy. The mice kept well and truly to themselves 😀
How interesting. CATS and MICE!! I don’t think I’d be that brave. 🙂
Julie & Colin have it all under control 😀