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There Are Over Eight Million Cats in British Homes.
Three of them have a website.
About
What became 'Talking Cats', started in late 2020 with a WhatsApp message.
By cousins, Liz and Nick
Covid lockdown restrictions were settling in and the days were long. Like many people, we spent a lot of time on the phone asking each other how things were going. Not much, was usually the answer. Residents of the UK were unable to go out, so a lot of our calls and messages turned into being about our cats. We shared messages and photographs on what they were doing - and what they appeared to think about it - and it became something we really looked forward to. It was such fun, and anyway the cats were having more fun and freedom than us!
Liz was in Sheffield with her two cats, brothers George and Mack. Nick was in London with his cat Mule. Before long we were sharing the cats' Christmas stories, comparing their presents and talking about their friends, neighbours and adventures. Our WhatsApp was full of their exploits. The cats were, as ever, getting on with things regardless.
Somewhere in the later entries, one of the cats wrote:
"She was talking to us again, saying we are going to be famous one day. No idea how or why. Life is genuinely boring up here".
We thought that was about right.
Eventually friends and family found out about our odd double life impersonating cats and asked to join in. It became a very confusing, very large and unruly WhatsApp group. At some point one of us said: “this should be a website”. It took a while to work out what kind.
We considered names for it, including ‘Catmopolitan’, ‘PusseyGalore’, ‘The Daily Meows’, ‘Batty Cats’, ‘Chatter Cats’, and ‘Cats All Folks’. We settled on ‘Talking Cats’, which said exactly what it was and nothing more than that.
The three cats at the centre of it are George, Mack and Mule. Their stories are real, as is their supporting cast, and you'll find photographs of them throughout the site.
George and Mack are brothers. They arrived together as kittens, rescued from a pensioner in Sheffield who had found two boisterous young cats rather more than she had anticipated. George arrived in the world as Bickett and was renamed in the car on the way home, listening to Abbey Road. George Harrison was the inspiration. The name has suited him ever since.
Mule arrived differently. He just turned up in Nick's garden. Nick returned him to his home several times. Mule considered the matter, made his own assessment, and decided to stay. They have been inseparable ever since. Mule describes himself as having made a considered, independent decision to relocate. Nick says Mule is the addition to his life he never realised he needed.
George, Mack and Mule and their supporting cast are real cats. The words are always theirs. We've occasionally experimented using AI-generated images for illustration to help bring a particular moment or story to life visually, so some images are our interpretation of them. All the others are original photographs.
Cousins Liz and Nick, co-founders of Talking Cats hope you have as much fun in the cat’s world as they do.
Meet the real Founders of Talking Cats
Talking Cats was founded by three cats. George writes from Sheffield. Mack writes from Sheffield, more briefly. Mule writes from London.
Three cats. Two cities. One ongoing argument about food portions that George considers unresolved and Mack considers settled. Mule is uninterested.
The Cats Diary
The Cats Diary covers everything worth covering: winter, spring, the brief period when the windows came out, a romantic situation that ended as Mack predicted, and the question of whether the bird bath counts as a viable water source. It does not, but they use it anyway.
Ask The Cats
The Q&A articles - Ask the Cats - answer the questions you actually have about cats - written by the cats in question, checked by a vet, and occasionally disputed by George, who has done his own research and would like that noted.
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