Zoe’s snores were legendary during her stay in the CPW shelter, all the more because we knew she couldn’t hear herself. As a deaf cat, she needed an especially safe, caring home to go to.

The 13-year-old was with us for a number of months, quietly pottering around the Timids wing or snoozing in or near her home cage.

We were delighted in February when she found a perfect home with Hannah, who had just bought her own place. She knew she wanted to share it with a cat or a dog. When she saw the existing catflap and the safe enclosed garden, it seemed like a cat would be the best fit for the property, so she started looking.

“I kept looking at the CPW website, and kept going back to her,” she says. Even Zoe being deaf seemed like another indication they belonged together, as Hannah has studied New Zealand Sign Language.

“When I went to meet her, I didn’t expect her to show affection. But I just really, really felt drawn to her.”

On the third visit, she officially fostered Zoe and took her home. She had been warned that Zoe might be very scared in her new environment, but the transition was much easier than expected. While she spent the first week under the bed, she was happy to come out for food and to use the litter tray, and then after that, she didn’t really go back under the bed.

Zoe is now called Kettlebelle, or Kitty B, or KB for short.

“I just think it’s pretty,” Hannah says. “Sometimes I call her KB. But she doesn’t know her own name, as she can’t hear.”

Is she as heavy as a kettlebell? Hannah laughs: “She’s not heavy at all. She is beautiful, absolutely beautiful, inside and out. She’s so peaceful, she never scratches or bites.

“When I get home from work, she’s sometimes sitting here and waiting on the rug.

“Her meows are vivacious, full-bodied, changeable, and mildly distressing to the neighbours.”

She says Kettlebelle can be very loud, and her meow sounds like a child crying, even if she’s happy: “It’s just how she says things.”

Hannah is careful also not to sneak up on KB. If KB can't see someone coming towards her, Hannah alerts her with knocking on a floor or wall, which KB can feel, or flicking the light switch.

"Kettlebelle is quite quirky! She hides my lip balms under rugs, and her small toys in her cat tunnel. We’re just two quirky ladies enjoying having each other around."

It’s clear that KB is now in her perfect home, where she loves and is loved: “She sleeps next to my head every night, and wakes me up for pats.”