From street cat to queen of the couch

By Djembe Archibald

Oct 25, 2023

Queen’s comfort: Fred in her favourite hiding hole in the laundry. Photo by Contributed

Will Lees and Kaitlyn Hall were looking for a new feline friend when their new best friend was handed to them via the cat distribution system, the common phenomenon where cats enter your life unannounced and become a new fur-ever friend.

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A friend of Will and Katie had a stray in his backyard, a kitten with no owner or mother in sight, that they nicknamed Fred.

They aimed to catch it to check for a microchip, but when nothing came up, they began to fall in love with the kitten.

“Our friend fed her for probably three months while I was deciding whether that was the cat for us,” Katie said.

“She [the friend] was sending me lots of pictures and videos and I got a bit obsessed with the cat so I was like to Will ‘I want this one’.”

Living in luxury: Although she had a rocky start, Fred had fully adjusted to inside cat life. Photo by Contributed

This is when they found out that Fred is actually a lady.

However, Fred had already become part of her identity, so the name stuck around.

When she first arrived in her new forever home, Fred wasn’t the biggest fan of her new friends or furniture.

“We set her up in the laundry because she was a bit scared but she wasn’t too bad really and it didn’t take her long to actually roaming properly, maybe two weeks,” Katie said.

Will describes her as very vocal, always having an opinion and wanting to join in on your conversation.