Inspiring a new generation of cat lovers, 12-year-old Cilla is integral to life at Outwoods Primary School. She began appearing six years ago, hungry and thin,and Outwoods has been her home ever since. Cilla is a supportive friend to staff, pupils, parents and, with her daily tweets, a community of 25,000 cats and cat lovers on X (Twitter). On her birthday, her social media friends sent her £5,000 worth of books, restocking the school library.
Sally Taylor, headteacher, said: “Cilla is very intuitive and always knows where she needs to be, with an anxious pupil or waiting in the hall for our Years 6s to arrive during SATs week. Stroking her calmed them down before their tests. Every morning when I arrive at school she is waiting to greet me which gets my day off to a lovely start. Then she hangs out with the pupils, in classes, during breaks and even on the football pitch during matches.
Cilla has six beds including two in her favourite place, the library, and at night she sleeps in one of the classrooms with a cat flap so she can come and go. Our pupils are very calm and that’s down to Cilla. They know school is a safe place because she chooses to live here. She’s the first name on our staff list, ahead of me, and that’s well deserved.”
Emma and her daughters Ruby, 13 and Mary, 10, chose a gentle little girl from a litter of black kittens but, due to a mix up with the coloured ribbons they wore, ended up with a mischievous boy who has now become Wadebridge’s town cat. Charlie Charles’ first night out was Halloween when he joined delighted trick or treaters, and his life has been a social whirl ever since.
Emma said: “Charlie Charles, three, makes our whole town smile. When he was young, people would post him back through my cat flap or, if they didn’t know him, fall for his ‘lost and hungry’ act and take him to the vets. I set up a Facebook page to let everyone know he has a home and now he has 700 friends across the world.
Tourists come to Wadebridge to meet him! He starts his day with a visit to the pet shop to test the treats. Then he pops to the Co-op and the Post Office, more treats, before spending afternoons at the Antique Centre. Later, he helps the staff in the cinema’s ticket kiosk and supports our cricket and rugby teams during matches. At Christmas he climbs the church tree and bats off ornaments. He gets away with his cheeky antics because he’s just so charming.”
A charismatic tabby cat called Dexter is determined to get a fuss from each of Alderbury’s 2,200 residents every day. Dexter has ‘worked’ at the village shop for about a decade, bringing the community together as they laugh at his cheeky personality. He even has his own house outside with a plaque bearing his name. When Dexter was badly injured in a cat fight last year, the village rallied round to help.
Kerry Carpenter who lives in Alderbury said: “Dexter, who’s about 11, knows he’s our village mascot, strutting around the shop, bushy tail in the air, waiting for someone to fuss him. We think he had a home originally but when Debbie from the shop realised he was sleeping outside at night she built a wooden house and fed and watered him. Dexter was attacked by another cat last winter, the deep wounds around his neck becoming infected, so the village raised £800 for vets’ bills.
Then Dawn and Andy, who live near the shop, offered to take him in so he had a warm house in which to recuperate. Now he has the best of both worlds, a home and his job in the shop. He’s always on time in the morning. The only drawback of being the village cat is that everybody knows he’s on a diet. Sorry Dexter, no treats until you’ve lost a pound and a half!”