A kitten was a perfect Covid distraction but I got more than I bargained for | Nova Weetman

When lockdowns ended I was left holding the kitten and the kitty litter - but now we're like an old married couple

After years of indoctrination from my native-animal loving parents, I arrived at adulthood wary of domestic pets. We didn't have any when I was growing up. Instead, Mum would jokingly tell us to go outside and play with the skinks that sun-baked on the hot bricks, or with the echidna that waddled through the garden. The native animals were not so keen on this, so I began collecting dead spiders and storing them in an old jewellery box, their limbs slowly disintegrating over time until they were nothing more than dust.

When I left home, we bought goldfish for our sharehouse, naming them after musicians we loved. Madonna was a quick-darting thing and Cyndi had bright-orange scales. They were low-maintenance pets, requiring nothing more than a pinch of food each morning and the occasional top-up of water. Even I could manage that.

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