Cats are the ultimate pet for me. 

I’ve always loved their unique mixture of affection and apathy, and I truly love the ones I’ve looked after.

But something I’ve discovered I truly don’t love is being hassled for food on work calls or during the night! 

My relationship with my beloved rescue cat, a Turkish Angora called Ghost, was put under severe strain during lockdown, but things were saved by an unlikely source: an automatic bird feeder.

When my partner and I moved into our first house a decade ago, a pregnant stray moved in with us, birthed three kittens on our sofa during Game of Thrones and we’ve had rescue cats ever since.

Ghost’s manner is almost dog-like (Picture: Jen Sizeland)

I started looking after foster cats through the Chorlton Cats charity in my local area during the first lockdown as the house felt empty while working from home without an animal living in it. 

After discovering I was pregnant, we decided to move house, making Ghost our last foster cat, as we adopted him. 

His manner was almost dog-like in his affection and love for humans, which is typical for a Turkish Angora. 

It’s a naturally gregarious breed that enjoys socialising with people, which was perfect for us as we needed a child-friendly pet for the baby.

While on the streets, he had about 10 people from his estate feeding him and this habit meant he was constantly consumed by where his next meal was coming from.

But when it came to living at home, adapting to a regular schedule was a struggle.

From around two hours before his mealtime, he would follow me around the house meowing loudly. 

He would interrupt Zoom calls with his bushy tail, yowl into the laptop microphone, try to jump out of windows to find another household to feed him and even attempt to wake me up in the middle of the night for an extra meal.

As I worked from home, he associated me much more strongly with food but Ghost would also pester my partner if he went near the kitchen where we kept the cat biscuits.

We kept him on a strict diet as he had problems with his teeth, weight and a dull coat from poor-quality nutrition – we couldn’t give him any snacks or let him out until his issues were under control so he drove us mad in the meantime. 

I felt terrible during pregnancy due to morning sickness and crippling headaches so I needed as much rest as I could get during that exhausting time. 

I worked three jobs – something which was only achievable with good sleep, and Ghost was stopping that every night. 

To stop the interruptions of my work and rest time, I had to lock him in the kitchen when my partner wasn’t available. It wasn’t what I wanted but I didn’t have much choice if I wanted to pay my mortgage. 

Understandably, Ghost didn’t like this and reacted by pacing around the room scratching at the door and occasionally knocking things off shelves.

It was my boyfriend who had the idea to purchase the automatic feeder, because he’d had a low-tech egg timer version of an auto feeder for his cat as a child. 

After he’d done some research, he saw how much better they were now with smarter technology, especially as they can be fully controlled by your phone. 

When the feeder arrived, it didn’t look particularly exciting. It was just a white plastic container with a tray at the bottom, but I downloaded the app to give it a go anyway. 

These days, Ghost is free from anxiety (Picture: Jen Sizeland)

The dry food goes into the compartment at the top of the feeder with a mechanism that turns to allow one small portion or two to fall into the tray below. 

In the app, I programme the times that I want his food to drop or it can be manually released at the tap of a button. 

As Ghost loves to eat, it helps that the portions are small as they can be spread out throughout the day, providing him with the relentless eating routine he clearly craves! 

If I’m away for a few hours, I no longer need to worry about making sure he gets his food. 

It’s such a good setup that we bought my mother-in-law the exact same model for an older cat that she recently inherited. 

As she is semi-retired and lives alone, it gives her the freedom to go out for half a day without having to fret about her pet. 

More: Lifestyle

Nowadays, Ghost always knows when he’s going to get fed and doesn’t have the same anxieties as when he was a street cat, and I don’t have the anxieties I had when he was causing trouble.

The feeder has given me my friendly pet back as he comes to me for affection instead of just food. 

Technology has turned our relationship around and him from nightmare lodger to dream housemate – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Ghost used to interrupt Zoom calls with his bushy tail, yowl into the laptop microphone, or try to jump out of windows in search of food.