The Neighbour’s Cat……and Recruitment!

Bear with me on this, I will get to the point eventually…..

My neighbour’s cat reminds me of my recruitment career to date. Every once in a while I open the door and there he is. Sat on his backside waiting. A jet black cat, probably 4-5 years old, donning a blue collar and a big bell. He looks at me (briefly) then saunters into my hallway and dumps himself down on his back and raises his legs in the air awaiting a tickle from my big toe.

My normal greeting is “oh hello here he is!”, or “hey Theo, been kicked out again?” He sometimes responds with what I can only assume is the teenager equivalent in cat mew.

After a big toe tickling his engine starts. His purring is very loud and hard. Sometimes he purrs so hard he actually chokes on the dribble he creates like a highly tuned car engine hitting an air pocket. At this point I tend to smile and maybe reach down and give him an ear tickle which then means he won’t leave me alone for another ten minutes or so. I grew up with loads of animals, (not in a jungle book way) but I now seem to have a mild allergy to cat hair so my resistance to pet and tickle him a lot seems to make him want it more…. a bit like a client who you know is recruiting, but obviously ignores you as they have with their own pets.

If I am doing my household chores he follows me up and down the stairs. For the first ten minutes he is under my feet at times, a health hazard, until he eventually plonks himself on a blanket at the bottom of my bed and then dozes off. He doesn’t ask for food, he doesn’t pee anywhere, he is just happy to be inside and warm after a hard night’s ‘mousing’.

More recently, as our relationship has deepened, he now brings me dead things. The odd mouse or shrew left lovingly outside the front door. I tell him off, he has a bell around his neck the size of a golf ball, but he just stares at me purring until I eventually pat him on the head. It’s what cats do I suppose. He’s showing me that he loves me, a ‘corporate gift’ if you will. If anyone has any ideas of how to stop that please let me know? He hasn’t got his bits and bobs so that can’t be the reason. I just put it down to him being a cat who likes chasing things.

My twin sis passed a few years back. When I did the gardening a Robin used to follow me around, bob bob bobbing along (I am starting to sound like Snow White here). I suppose part of my grief made me believe that her soul was in that Robin, bob bob bobbing along. Bob bob bobbing along until Theo jumped him/her one dark night that is. Mr/Ms Robin ended up outside my patio door as one of his trophies. Pretty unmarked really but legs in the air and like in the parrot sketch, an ex robin. I really was not happy with Theo that day. I ignored him for a good while, that only made him worse. He became frantic for attention, visits became more regular. Like I said he’s got a bell under his chin like a golf ball so either the Robin was deaf or Theo has worked out a way to jump and keep it silent. (Is that Darwinism?)

Since then, more or less every morning he comes marching in. If I need to raise my teenagers from slumber I send him in, early doors, like a feline swat team and it gets results!

So whats my point?

It’s about relationships. I have basically been that cat Theo over the years, 25 years now, being on the outside of clients waiting for a bit of kindness so I can build that relationship.

I haven’t yet walked into the lobby of a client and rolled on my back, but I have left treats and gifts. I will give my service to you no matter if I am ignored for ages and I will always be pleased to see you and subsequently dedicated to your business . Your office door may be closed to me for years but then one day you may just be pleased to see me again and I assure you that I would do a fantastic job for your business. I don’t need a lot of attention (although that would be nice) but, unlike Theo, I would have to charge a fee although I would hope that over the years I would move from being sat on the fence to into the hallway, to a tickle and then a part of your day to day life.

So on that note, if you need a new recruit in the mid to senior market, or even know how to stop a cat destroying the local wildlife, please drop me a note as it would be great to hear from you.