Veronica, a person we support in Teddington, London, has been in exceptionally high spirits recently thanks to her new flatmate, Aero.
Two weeks ago, 5-year-old Aero arrived on Veronica’s doorstep, after Veronica and the staff at 23 Hampton Road got in touch with local charity, Animal Rescue and Care. After weeks of scrolling through the charity’s website, viewing photos and reading bios with the hope of finding a little furry friend to adopt, Veronica and her support workers finally found the one.
However, it wasn’t for a little while that Veronica could bring Aero home. The whole process took about 2 months with a lady from Animal Rescue and Care even visiting Veronica’s flat to check its suitability for a live-in pet. After the checks were completed Aero moved in. Since then, from daily visits to Veronica’s lovely flat and garden, the staff at Hampton Road have remarked that Aero really gets on with people and is a good-natured cat. Paul, Locality Manager says: “Aero is well behaved and has settled in nicely. She’s quite a friendly and cheeky cat.”
Walsingham Support understands that every person we support has a right to choose how they want to be supported, the way they want to live and the things they want to do. It is with this in mind, as well as the safety of the people we support, that motivated our staff at Hampton Road, and Veronica, to make this decision to adopt Aero. Our goal? To increase the quality of life, wellbeing and happiness of each individual we support.
Aero who is white all over with patches of black hair and a black tail, isn’t the first cat that Veronica has had. She’s had two in the past – Pickles and Pebbles – so Veronica is no stranger to a cat’s unusual behavior: “She sleeps in her wardrobe, she never sleeps in her bed” says Veronica.
According to Paul, Veronica who has learning disabilities, is “more cheerful and quite uplifted since Aero’s arrival. She’s made a difference.”
Our staff at Walsingham Support are here to encourage the people they support to live their lives to the full; sometimes that means welcoming a little feline creature into the team!
“She’s a lovely little cat. I wouldn’t be without her now” says Veronica.