A town cat who has captured the hearts of Whitehaven residents for years has found his fur-ever home.
Wella first became a local celebrity when he started wandering his way into businesses around the town, falling asleep in shop windows and keeping customers company.
In March 2018, a Facebook page was set up to document Wella’s wanders, where he was pictured relaxing everywhere from Tesco, to Wetherspoons and beyond. The page was set up by an individual who was feeding him at the time, after Wella kept being mistaken as a lost cat.
As Wella continued to wander, he became more reliant on the businesses in town to take turns looking after him. Shop owners would feed, water and flea him so he could keep adventuring.
One of the main businesses looking after Wella was Strandz 9 hairdressers on Duke Street. Owner Louise Arrighi began taking in Wella and feeding him after he became a regular at the shop, so much so people would donate cat food to the salon.
“He started coming when he was wandering into my shop and every shop in Whitehaven. He seemed to know we would close at 5pm, so he’d come in around quarter to and I’d lock him in and feed him just in the winter.”
While Wella is beloved and well-known by townsfolk, his origin story remains somewhat of a mystery, with his age and original owner still unknown.
Talking about where Wella came from, Louise said: “He followed someone home when he was a kitten one day, but they couldn’t keep him in and he started wandering straight away and he became the town cat. One time I took him to the vets and said I had this cat coming in my shop and they said ‘oh, that’s Wella, he just wanders, that’s what he does.'”
But in 2020, Wella’s days of wandering became disrupted, as the pandemic hit and shops closed, meaning he couldn’t frequent the places keeping him fed and warm.
Louise said: “He got really used to all my customers and was wandering everywhere and then COVID happened. I put on my Facebook if anyone would take him in and nobody replied, I thought as all the shops were closed, who is going to feed him? So I took him home and he’s been with me ever since.”
“While he was with me, I kept him in the house and started letting him out gradually and he never really wandered again. He did go on a big wander one time and I was really distraught, it was when we were opening back up for the first time and then he wandered right back into my shop. I took him home again and that’s been him again for three years.”
After the pandemic restrictions fully eased up, Louise took to Wella’s Facebook page which she acts as an admin for, to ask for advice on whether or not Wella should be brought back into the town.
But after months of sharing how happy and settled he was living with her, people on the page were in agreement that he was safest, and happiest, living with Louise.
Recalling some of his more daring adventures, Louise said: “At the Harbourmaster café he used to get up into the nets on the roof and once tried for hours to get him down. He also once wandered into my shop with a whole pigeon in his mouth flapping and he used to go in Peacocks and lie in the baskets there, he’s just a wee character.
“I remember one time he was in a shop opposite us called The Emporium and he was locked in over a weekend. People messaged the owner and they said they’d had about 50 phone calls to say Wella was in their window. For some reason now he’s just settled with us now and we love him.”
While Wella doesn’t venture as far as he once did, he still ventures around where Louise lives in Whitehaven, and once found his way into a campervan, where he fell asleep.
She added: “He’s just loving his life at the moment, he touches the hearts of everyone who meets him, but I think his big wandering days may be behind him now.”
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