He is the socialite and charms visitors on the promenade, while she takes on the admin duty, making sure her two-legged companions keep up the good work.

What started off as a risky experiment has turned into a purrfect success story when the abandoned mom and her son were taken in as the complex cats at The Boulders and are now Ballito’s whiskered celebrities on par with Umhlanga’s Skabenga at The Oyster Box.

Their mom, Elza Pelser said she met the furries through the Feline Feral Fund (FFF), who got involved after the mother cat was found abandoned and taken to the SPCA with her litter of roughly seven-week-old kittens in April 2015.

“The first time I saw the mommy cat she “talked” to me and immediately the song “She looks like an angel, she talks like and angel” came to mind. Hence she became Angel,” said Pelser, who adopted the skinny cat immediately.

She quickly adapted to her new home, but Pelser noticed that she was missing her babies and asked the FFF chairlady, Sharon Cossey to give them one of her kittens.

“Sharon brought us this tiny, skinny, ginger male kitten. When he saw his mom, he immediately wanted to drink her milk. She wasn’t interested at all, but like all males he was persistent to get what he wanted and ten minutes later he was enjoying mother’s milk and she was licking and kissing her lost son. His stubbornness inspired his name – Pietertjie – after my husband, Pieter, who loves him to bits.”

Now, plump and pleased, the two cats rule the roost at The Boulders.

While Pietertjie spends most of his time on the beach playing with the small crabs on the beach and chatting to holidaymakers and locals on the promenade, Angel has taken on the role of “the assistant” to the complex supervisor, Rose Nel.

“Every morning at exactly 8.30am, Angel waits to be escorted to the lift (taking the stairs is way too much effort) to go to work. She started using the lift about a year ago and has trained the staff to press the buttons for her, either going up to our flat on the second floor or down to the ground floor for work. In the office,  she takes a seat on the desk or walks around the building with Rose doing general inspection and check ups,” said Elza.

After a day out, the two enjoy a cat nap on mom’s bed followed by a delicious dinner – Whiskas of course, they turn their noses up at anything else offered by holidaymakers, even biltong!