As soon as Eli came home with Molly, he settled in and started ruling the roost, and he even got on well with Molly’s boxer dog Rocky!
He even gets his own seat!
Students get a bit of a reputation for living the party lifestyle, but this Liverpool kitten is living a charmed student life with his owner — and has quite the social life!
Most people, when they think of Liverpool, will automatically think of The Beatles, comedian John Bishop and actor Stephen Graham. But it won’t be long before a little ginger cat, who is fast becoming one of the city’s most popular faces, is up there with other Scouse royalty!
Eli is not the kind of cat that is content to stay at home while his owner Molly Bradshaw, a third-year veterinary student, goes out socialising with friends.
Starting young
Eli came home with Molly when he was nine weeks old from a breeder in Wales and straight away showed his adventurous personality. She said: “Since he was a kitten, he was keen to explore. When I first met him, he came straight over and curled up in my lap to say hello, and was peeping out the window and just generally trying to be nosey! It’s always been in his nature to be outgoing.” “Rocky wasn’t socialised when we got her and she didn’t know how to greet animals calmly. A lot of animals can be scared of her, but since Eli is so outgoing he wasn’t bothered by her at all and they became friends straight away,” said Molly.
Eli came to live with Molly in her university house and began to express an interest in going outside, so to keep him safe, Molly invested in a harness and lead to take him out once he’d had all his vaccinations. She said: “I first took him to a couple of friends’ houses in his harness and he was never bothered about that at all, and now I take him everywhere!
“Then, as we are students, I wanted to take him out with me so he didn’t have to miss out and be on his own when I was out.”
Elie loves showing off with his new friends!
Off to the pub
After seeing how much he enjoyed being out and about and meeting new people, Molly started taking Eli to some local pubs and bars in Liverpool and he soon started drawing the crowds. Not only was he being given treats and his own place to sit in many of the city’s bars, but he was being photographed by punters as well. Eli then attracted the attention of the national press after an article about the dynamic duo appeared in the Metro newspaper:
“That’s when things really started to kick off when we would go out,” Molly said. “It seemed that in almost every other pub, someone would come up and say ‘Is that Eli?’” He became even more famous when Molly created an Instagram account to document his adventures, and his account now has more than 2,300 followers.
Molly said: “I started doing his Instagram when I went into the pub and people were making a fuss of him, and one of my friends said that I should start putting him on Instagram as it would be hilarious.
“He loves his photo being taken so I started posting his pictures and it’s really taken off — I wasn’t expecting that!”
You’ll be most likely to find Eli in Liverpool’s BrewDog pub because there are ledges on the back of all the chairs and the booths and Molly said he loves to sit on there and be able to survey everyone and watch the world go by.
Eli now has friends all over the city of Liverpool, and some chefs will even come out and give him some tuna or some sardines, and at another city centre restaurant he even has steak!
Eli gets spoilt when he visits his favourite pubs.
As some bars are obviously quite loud, Molly said that Eli is mostly unfazed by loud music and noises but if he isn’t happy, he will let her know and she’ll make him comfortable or remove him from the situation.
She said: “You can tell when he’s had enough as he will just curl up and go to sleep, but he’s very unfazed by everything. I even took him to a jazz bar recently and you’d be surprised at the level of noise he can tolerate.
“It was only when the symbol started clinging, he started to get a bit antsy so we moved further back away from the speakers and he was fine
— he was back to himself again.
“Now he goes everywhere with me and people love seeing him. He loves meeting new people when he’s out and about exploring Liverpool’s nightlife. He has always been an avid explorer from the day he came home with me.”
More info
● You can follow Eli’s adventures out and about in Liverpool at www.instagram.com/elitheadventurecat
