Unexpected reunions as Hawke's Bay catteries inundated

Salem found his long lost sibling in a Hawke's Bay cattery. Photo / Supplied

Amid accusing stares from pairs of big yellow eyes, cat owners are becoming less afraid of dropping their feline through the doors of inundated Hawke's Bay catteries.

Thousands of residents have packed up and left Hawke's Bay during the holiday period, leaving their furry friend to enjoy its own personal hotel.

Owners of When the Cat's Away Cattery in Puketapu, John and Christine Dunn said Christmas 2018 was the busiest in the six years that they've run the cattery.

"We were fully booked out by November. People were pleased to be put on the waiting list.

"A lucky few were able to get a spot for their furry friend through cancellations," John Dunn said.

Dunn said they catered for 55 cats in the main cattery and had two other smaller cattery buildings which took 10.

People from as far as Auckland visited Dunn's cattery during the silly season.

"There was no cattery space left in Auckland, so they brought Momo along for a ride. He stayed two nights and is now back in Auckland."

Siblings Salem and Pepper were accidentally yet happily reunited in When the Cat's Away cattery in Hawke's Bay. Photos / Supplied

An accidental, yet special family reunion also took place after a customer noticed a post of a black cat on the cattery's Facebook page.

"The customer's cat, now called Pepper, had come to them as an SPCA adoption three years ago. The SPCA name their cats and before adoption Pepper was known as 'Raven'.

"Her brother 'Salem' - featured in the Facebook post - had also been adopted by another family, and both cats happened to be booked into the Dunn's at the same time and they were both happily reunited."

Other catteries have also been feeling the heat, as manager of St Georges Kennels Philip Allerby said the number of stays had doubled compared with the previous year.

"This is a very busy time of year for us. We had almost 40 cats staying over the Christmas period this year.

"Compared to the same time last year was almost 20. Our cattery is a smaller area than the larger dog kennels," Allerby said.

St Georges gets its fair share of quirky visitors which makes the cattery and kennels enjoyable to run, he said.

"We do have some very special cats stay. We just had Shadow stay who is a big black fluffy cat who loves to follow us around trying to see what we are doing when we clean each area.

"Another very large ginger and white cat could not fit into any of our beds, he was too heavy to try to lift.

"All the cats have such different personalities and all love to have a big cuddle and petting."