Dr Claudia Maria Wagner may be used to being referred to as the ‘Cat Lady’ since she appeared on the RTÉ programme ‘The Cat Hospital’ with her magnificent prize-winning Maine Coon, Franklin; but when she got post addressed to ‘German lady with a rake of cats’, she was more than surprised.

“The postcard travelled from Portlaoise Post Office sorting office before it was delivered to us after Christmas,” says Claudia who is from Germany and who lives with her partner Colm near Ladysbridge, East Cork.

Claudia and Colm received a lot of post over the festive season from family and friends in Ireland and in Germany; but they were astounded by the delivery to their door addressed to Claudia and Colm, a German lady who has ‘a rake of cats’ near Garryvoe.

“When I opened the mailbox that morning I thought somebody nearby had hand-delivered the card,” says Claudia.

“I got a real surprise. It brought a smile to my face.

“And I thought maybe they had been celebrating the end of 2020 and the beginning of the New Year and they had a little drink. But then I saw the card had a stamp on it and I realised the postman had delivered it to us. I saw the Portlaoise postmark on the card and I knew then the card had been posted. It had gone from friends of ours in East Cork to Portlaoise to the sorting centre and back down again to our home in Ladysbridge.

Similar to the sixth sense that cats are known to have, returning home after wandering; the card made a similar journey up and down the country.

“The postie obviously had his wits about him.

“He is well used to delivering cat food and cat litter to me from Zoo plus; so the clue was in the ‘rake of cats’.”

Claudia breeds and shows pedigree Maine Coon cats and lives about eight kilometers from Garryvoe.

“It is a little crazy but our friends Sally and Thomas didn’t have our address. I do know that people in the area know me around here for having cats,” says Claudia.

“I was on RTÉ in 2019 talking about them and apart from all the cat stuff we get delivered here to the house, the postman must have known where to go.” Claudia has five Maine Coon cats and three moggies she rescued from the animal shelter.