Although we had fostered cats before, Nettle was the first one who came here for good. He was estimated to be 10 years old when we first met him, but we suspect he might be older. We took to him immediately. He had been at the rescue for a long time because he was old and had health issues, but the staff loved him and let him roam the place at night while all the other cats were in their cages.

Nettle is such a people-lover! I have never met another cat who is drawn to people as much as he is. A person just has to enter the room for him to begin purring, and he will quickly try to cosy up to them.

He doesn't like the presence of other cats, and it took around a year for him and Shrimp to be able to hang out in the same room without supervision. I don't blame him - it was like bringing a toddler to live in a nursing home for a while! - but since Shrimp has grown up, they tend to leave each other alone.

Nettle is a heat magnet. He has a heating pad underneath his favourite bed and likes to lie down right beneath the radiatiors. When he was younger, he would hang out in the windowsill, but he has a hard time reaching it these days. He also loves a warm lap.

Nettle is not very smart. We don't know if this is just a personality quirk or old age, but his day-to-day functioning is not helped by the fact that he also has a single partially-blind eye, four tiny teeth, and is partially deaf.

Unfortunately, Nettle has always been some kind of ill since we met him. When he came to our home, he had painful teeth that were rejecting from his gums. Like many senior cats, he also has hyperthyroisism. This means his thyroid works too hard and overproduces hormones. Thyroid glands are located in the neck, and you can feel Nettle's larger one! In cats, thyroid hormones help with growth, healthy fur, activity levels, and healthy metabolism. He has medication for this twice a day but he struggles to gain weight. Nettle's thyroid levels had to be stable before he could have his painful teeth removed, and this took a long time to happen.

When he finally had his teeth removed, he was only left with four tiny teeth in the bottom center of his mouth. The removed ones sit in a container on my mantelpiece, waiting for me to one day make sick ass jewelery with them. Due to the anasthesia, he developed an eye ulcer that grew rapidly and resulted in the eye needing to be removed a week later. It was close, but he made it, and we had a happy, healthy Nettle back in time for Christmas.

He has loud breathing, but the cause of this can't be determined. During xrays to try and work out the cause, we found out that Nettle has really bad arthritis. We hadn't known the extent of this as he's always been pretty low energy. He gets a monthly Solensia injection to help with the pain from his bones. My husband and I joke that he takes after me, because I have chronic joint pain too! His arthritis means that Nettle can't jump upwards, only horizontally.

Nettle was diagnosed with the beginning of kidney failure in 2025. Did you know that this affects up to 40% of cats aged 10+, and 80% of cats over 15? He has special food which is low in phosphorus, and packed with things like omega 3 to help support his kidney function. Supposedly cats with renal failure lose their appetites, but I think Nettle's has grown! Maybe that's down to his thyroid. I dunno, this cat is a mystery.

Oh yes, and he recently had an ulcer in the other eye. Thankfully, this one was not a Super Ulcer. It only damaged his cornea and he has kept partial vision. Little dude needs whatever he can get!

He hates to travel, and the least traumatising way we have found of getting him to the vets every month is a little pram. I know, I know, but I am absolutely That Person.

Nettle is the smallest boy at 2lbs. He is the oldest boy at maybe 13, probably older. He is the stinkiest boy. And he is the most loving boy in the whole wide world. It is an absolute honour to be his retirement home.