When you stroke a cat you immediately go ‘Aaah...’

Last week we showed you how to adopt a rescue as Arlene Phillips tells how her rescue cat Romeo HOW TO ADOPT A PET CONCLUDING OUR HEARTWARMING SERIES

Choreographer and exStrictly judge Arlene Phillips is convinced cats can dance. Her three-year-old ginger tom Romeo is quite the mover apparently. OK, to the untrained eye it might look as if he’s just rolling around on the floor, demanding attention, but Arlene – who knows about these things – sees some impressive hip action and a keen sense of rhythm. ‘He even keeps time to the music,’ she points out. ‘It’s hilarious. I do wonder if he’s seen me rehearsing at home and is just copying me.’

Romeo’s a natural show-off. Arlene says he certainly plays up to his name with the ladies – not to mention the squirrels, mice and birds. ‘He chases anything that moves,’ she says. ‘But his favourite thing is to find a spot in the garden – he has a few favourite bushes – and to sit surveying his domain.’

It’s fair to say Arlene is besotted with Romeo, but then who can blame her? When she says Romeo has ‘stolen my heart’, she means it. Today she returned from a work trip to Germany where she regularly visits to keep an eye on her high- octane musical Starlight Express, which has been running for 29 years. Two minutes after she walked in her front door, however, she says her heart rate had calmed. Why? Because Romeo had rushed to meet her, winding himself around her legs and allowing himself to be cuddled. ‘It’s magical, isn’t it? Just stroking a cat calms you down and helps you relax. You put your hand in the soft fur and you immediately go, “Aaah...”’

It was three years ago that Romeo came into her home, turning everything she’d believed upside down. Until then, despite having had a succession of cats, Arlene felt she was a dog person at heart thanks to her favourite childhood pet being a pooch. Ruler of the roost at home for many years has been her ageing Manchester terrier Polly. Then came rescue cat Romeo. He was a tiny ball of fluff when they met – scared beyond words and, she worried, terribly damaged.

For Romeo’s life had almost ended before it began. He was tossed out shortly after birth, and only by chance did a passer-by find him.

Arlene shudders to think of what might have been. ‘We got him when my daughter Abi went to the The Mayhew Animal Home in Kensal Green, north London, and came back saying she’d fallen in love with this kitten who was so tiny he shouldn’t have been away from his mother. He’d been handed in to the rescue place after someone found him and his sister in a bin bag. They’d just been chucked away like a piece of rubbish. It was heartbreaking.’

Like all rescue cats Romeo had to be kept inside for the first few weeks and given round-the-clock TLC to build up his trust in people. ‘He’d been through goodness-knows-what so we just had to take things slowly,’ says Arlene. ‘I remember him being this terribly frail little bundle. We wondered if he’d ever come out of his shell, but he did.’

So is she a cat or dog person now? ‘I think a cat one. I mean I adore Polly, she’s my pride and joy, but there’s something about a cat that is special. I’m a much calmer person for having Romeo in my life.’ How did Polly adapt when they brought Romeo home? ‘They were wary of each other at first. The funny thing is that Romeo has always refused to use the cat flap – I think he gets spooked by the noise it makes – but Polly uses it all the time. And now they’re best friends.’

As she poses for photos with Romeo, their bond is clear. Also obvious, though, is the fact that he’s not an ‘easy’ cat. He’s nervy, prone to being ‘spooked’, says Arlene, and needs coaxing to relax. ‘We think it comes from whatever happened to him early in his life,’ she says. ‘ When he first came to us he was nervous about everything. Loud noises terrified him for some reason. We’ve had to work on that.’

Technically, Romeo belongs to Abi, Arlene’s youngest daughter who still lives at home with her and her partner, Angus Ion. Her elder daughter Alana, who has her own place, was already a cat owner and Abi was ‘desperate’ for one too – hence the visit to The Mayhew, which takes in thousands of unwanted dogs and cats each year, as well helping pet owners and carers experiencing difficulty through its outreach programme.

Arlene had grown up with pets, and knew that a house wasn’t a home without them. ‘I think pets are important in teaching children a sense of responsibility – animals need feeding every day, and in the case of dogs, walking. You can’t be selfish. Their needs take priority, and I think that’s a good lesson for children to learn.’ Children also learn harsher lessons from pets. ‘I learned about death from my goldfish, one I got from a fair,’ she says, soberly. In Arlene’s case, sadly, these lessons were needed. At just 15 she lost her mother to leukaemia and then her father died in 2000 after a ten-year struggle with Alzheimer’s. While she doesn’t draw direct comparisons with the years she spent caring for her dad, she points out that having a pet ‘to come home to’ in stressful times is a solace. ‘I think people have this idea that cats aren’t emotive, but in my experience they are. They can sense your mood and they’re there for you. There’s nothing more comforting.’

Trained as a dancer, Arlene, who’s