+ 16
(View All)

Fizz the cat

A cat in Llandrindod Wells has become a local celebrity for his adventures across the town.

Fizz the ginger cat, who will be two in August, is known for his big personality as he ‘pur-uses’ the town for friends.

The friendly feline is a regular at the town’s newsagents, the Metropole Hotel, Tesco, the local schools, the Rock Park, The Pavilion, the Llanerch Inn and the Llandrindod Wells War Memorial Hospital to name a few.

From attending lessons at Ysgol Calon Cymru to helping staff undertake their stock checks, Fizz loves to get stuck-in around the town.

Fizz the cat
Fizz attends primary school and then heads to Tesco for a fuss (Bryony Bufton)

Owners Bryony Bufton and her partner Tom Loder have had Fizz and his brother Bubbles since they were kittens.

“At about nine months old when they first started going out, he very quickly discovered the whole of Llandod and has continued to do so for the last year”.

Bryony laughed: “It’s driven me completely and utterly mad.

“He goes AWOL quite frequently - we’re getting used to it now so we don’t panic quite as much.”

The 55-year-old, who lives with Tom near the Rock Park, explained that Fizz has his own Facebook account where he has amassed more than 400 friends and features posts about all his adventures - it can also be helpful to locate the cat if he has been away from home for a bit too long.

Bryony said: “He goes to the Metropole Hotel, and he had a lock-in at the Llanerch one night. He goes to the Pavilion when they put on music concerts and they shared a picture of him at the desk helping with check-ins for the concerts.

“He goes to the local newsagents and does check-in with the morning papers and then sits on them. The manager has even dedicated his chair just to Fizz.

“He goes to the sports centre in Llandod, he goes to the High School - he’s attended biology, sports lessons and maths - he likes the maths block particularly. He went to Cefnylls primary school as well last week. Tesco became a favourite for a while - he’s a complete law unto himself.”

Fizz the cat
Fizz at Arfon Ales pub (Bryony Bufton)

Bryony said that they contacted The Brecon & Radnor Express after reading about Milo in Brecon which she said was like “another version of Fizz”.

The young tomcat enjoys sitting at the Customer Service desk in Tesco as well as in the clothes aisle and the toilets - his owners once received a phone call at 2am as he refused to leave the store as staff were stock-checking.

“He’s just a complete and utter character. He adores people and he follows them everywhere.

“If they open the door, he quite happy goes into their houses - we’ve retrieved him from a number of people’s houses. We had one lady give him a lift home.”

Bryony has become more than used to driving to collect Fizz from around the spa town as he follows people home from the Rock Park.

The furry friend, who doesn’t enjoy staying home, particularly enjoys following the secondary school children on their way home from school.

Fizz the cat
Fizz the wandering cat being driven home after one of his adventures (Bryony Bufton)

Fizz, who is happy to be fussed and picked up, is often the cause of people messaging Bryony and Tom from the other side of Llandrindod to say he has followed them home.

Bryony said: “He’s just a complete law unto himself. He won’t stay home and I’ve accepted that this is just what he does.

“Last summer, his passion was the crazy golf course in Llandrindod. He was ruining everybody’s games by chasing the balls around the crazy golf course. He’s just bonkers.

“He went down to the Llanerch on New Year’s Eve and lots of people were having their photos taken with him. He just does his own thing.

“I had one recently which was ‘he’s in our kitchen, do you want to come and pick him up?’ I call it mum taxi and he frequently has a mum taxi.”

When the adventurous cat does return home, he usually sleeps for a day to a day and a half before going back out to find more friends.

However, Bryony said he will “pops in once or twice a day” sometimes to eat before going back out.

Mischievous Fizz has even caused his owner to get CCTV in their home which they call their “cat cam” to check on him.

Fizz the cat
Fizz hiding in the Newsagents (Bryony Bufton)

Bryony said: “The cat cam is focussed on the microchip cat flap so when we go away or we’re off, I can actually monitor when he is in and out of the house because I was getting so worried about him and getting worked up all the time because I didn’t know where he was.

“I find this helps me because if we go away for a day or two because my neighbours will feed him, and I can check the cat cam and I know he’s come in at 2pm and gone back out at 3pm. It means that at least I know that in 24 hours, he has been home once so I have the sort of reassurance that he’s come back. I can’t believe I’ve had to get a camera to know where my cat is.”

When Fizz does go out for a bit longer than usual, his owners said they will post on his page after 36 hours to find out where he is.

“When he goes missing and then we get him back, my partner writes a little story from Fizz’s perspective.

“He went to the hospital the other day and they put him out of the hospital - my partner put something to the effect of “visiting the hospital and soon got addicted. They’ve got plenty of patience for the patients but not any for me.

“He’s got more friends on Facebook than me. Everyone says it’s quite entertaining”.

When the moggy is not exploring the town, he enjoys playing with his puzzle feeders at home, although he always solves them very quickly.

Described as intelligent, mad and unusual, Bryony said Fizz is completely different to his brother Bubbles who is exceptionally relaxed.

Fizz the cat
Fizz fast asleep after a busy day exploring the town (Bryony Bufton)

She said: “Bubbles, who is pale cream, is so laid back and horizontal compared to Fizz and never goes anywhere.

“I’ll often be be wandering around in Tesco, and people come up to me and go ‘oh, you’re Fizz’s mum aren’t you?’. I don’t even know these people and I’m like ‘oh god yeah’ and they say ‘you’ve got the famous cat’ and ‘Fizz for mayor’ and stuff like that.

“He’s very intelligent, he’s very unusual for a cat - he’s not like a normal cat.

“He just wants to be out and with people and sometimes when I go to pick him up, I can’t say he’s desperately pleased to see me - he looks at me as if to say ‘oh no, not you are again’ and I just think ‘thanks’.”

The cheeky cat, who also loves his cat tower, can be found on Facebook where he posts all about his adventures and new friends in Llandrindod. Send a friend request to Fizz Wanderer to keep up with the famous feline.