Marisca's and Ralph's story
My name is Marisca and I am a sales representative at Beaphar Belgium for East Flanders, West Flanders, Hainaut, Flemish Brabant and a piece of French-speaking Belgium. I’ve been working at Beaphar for 4 years now and I still enjoy working in the pet sector as I am a big animal lover. I’ve always had cats, ever since my childhood. It has not changed even after I married my husband. We had a cat together called Gijs. She unfortunately died at the age of 16. Because we loved having a cat we decided to get another one. It was by chance that we came across a photo of Ralph on the internet. When we saw him we had to get him. He’s a British Shorthair and was 2 years old at the time. My husband and I were immediately smitten with Ralph.
When I went to see him the day after I saw the photo I saw that he was a small, poor cat. He weighed barely 3.5kg, which is way too little for a British Shorthair. He lived in a shed with some hay. When I grabbed him he immediately crawled very close to me and I fell in love instantly. I immediately took him home with me. Once at home I noticed that Ralph was in pain while eating. We both took him immediately to the vet and it turned out that he had dental problems. The inside of his mouth was completely inflamed. He really had a hard time. Eventually we went to the veterinary dentist with him and all his teeth were pulled. He only has his lower canines. Ralph eventually had to undergo two operations to pull all his teeth. The operations required a lot of money, but we paid that with love. You would do anything for your pet. The high costs were probably the reason why the previous owners neglected him and sold him. It unbelievable they just left him. Look at those eyes.
Since then Ralph has been with us for 5 years. We have not regretted it for a minute that we saved him. He can live perfectly without teeth. He doesn’t even need a special diet. He can eat kibbles like any other cat. He still catches mice! He is very affectionate and is always with us. You really feel that he is grateful to us that we have saved him. In the evening he always sits on our laps and when we come home from work he is already waiting for us in the hallway. He is a bit shy towards strangers, but that’s probably due to his past. However, he will never be vicious when he’s afraid.
The name Ralph comes from ‘Ralph Lauren’. At first we wanted to have two cats and we could
have named the second cat ‘Lauren’. Unfortunately, a second animal is not an
option. Ralph does not tolerate other animals. I think he is just too spoiled
and does not want to share the attention. We have enough of Ralph. We do not
have children, but we consider Ralph as our four-legged child. He is part of
our family.