Raymond isn’t your average house cat. This three-year-old ginger tom has made quite a name in his town, by sneaking into hotel rooms and wandering through supermarket aisles.
His adventures have turned him into a local celebrity – and a social media star! People can’t get enough of Raymond’s quirky antics, and his growing fanbase loves sharing photos and stories about him online.
His owner, Rebecca Palombella, describes him as “one of a kind” and admits there’s no stopping him when it comes to his little adventures.
It all started when Raymond started sneaking into local hotels, where he’d casually stroll in as if he were a paying guest. This habit quickly became his trademark, as Rebecca shared in an interview:
“We were constantly getting phone calls to come and get him because he was going up to the bedrooms and they’d find him asleep on the bed. Most guests did like him but some obviously had allergies so he had to be turfed out all the time.”
At one hotel, he even managed to spend the night in a guest room. Yet, his boldest move was when he tried to enter the penthouse suite at The Wild Pheasant Hotel.
Becky, the hotel’s general manager, recalled Raymond’s latest escapade, sharing:
“He tried to make his way to the penthouse suite, which has a hot tub, as if he was a VIP guest.
This bold kitty confidently strutted across the hotel bar like he owned the place. He even made his way into Becky’s office, where he climbed right onto her chair without hesitation, as Becky shared:
“He walked across the bar – which we thoroughly cleaned after. He took up my seat in the office and decided to be the general manager.”
Raymond has also been visiting the local cleaning team’s office. On one occasion, he strolled right in, climbed onto a chair, and decided it was his for the day.
But he doesn’t limit his visits to public spaces. He’s known for casually wandering into people’s homes too. He’d walk in, make himself comfortable, and act like he’s been invited.
Some residents have even grown fond of his unannounced visits, while others are more surprised to find him lounging on their couches or sunning himself in their gardens.
Raymond’s non-stop escapades eventually left Rebecca with no choice but to create a Facebook page just for him. It just became impossible to track him otherwise.
Now, thanks to the page, everyone in town knows Raymond, which has made it easier for his mom to know his whereabouts, as she shared:
“They don’t message me anymore because they know who Raymond is now. So at least I know if I need him to come home I can just go and grab him.”
Wherever he goes, Raymond has a way of charming people and making himself at home. Recently, he’s decided that local Aldi is his favorite place.
He actually caused quite a stir there, when the staff found him hanging around the meat aisle, as Rebecca shared:
“The recent one is Aldi, he likes Aldi. Someone messaged me saying ‘Can you come and get your cat from Aldi?’ I wasn’t actually in town, but they know him and it came over the tannoy – ‘Raymond is on aisle 2’ – he was in the meat aisle!”
But it’s not just Aldi – Raymond’s been spotted at Spar, where he made himself at home in the cat food aisle. He also visits various local cafes and other shops.
Rebecca often gets asked why she doesn’t just keep Raymond indoors, but for her adventurous ginger tom, that’s simply not an option, as she explained:
“People do comment saying ‘Oh I wouldn’t want my cat going out’. But I can’t keep him in because he’d hate it… He does come home, but only when it suits him!”
She admitted that she did worry about letting him wander around in the beginning, given all the potential dangers out there. But Raymond’s pretty street-smart and she now believes he knows how to handle himself.
Rebecca knows that Raymond’s free-spirited nature makes him happy, and for her, that’s what matters most.
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