If you have the space and the means I would heartily recommend getting your cat a cat. Pets do get lonely and if he was used to a colony then there’s a good chance this would improve his life. Bonus points if you can get your hands on one of the cats he was loving on at the shelter!
I’m based in London, the water is really hard and drinking water, and more importantly tea is so much better with any sort of filtration.
I use a refillable filter called Phox—they’re a smaller UK brand that offers three types of refills: one that just filters, one that filters and softens (my choice), and one called the Alkaline pack which maintains calcium and adds magnesium and ups the pH.
I used to use Brita filters and the amount of plastic waste would really bug me. I’d definitely get a filtration system installed if I owned my own home but Phox feels like a good solution in the meantime.
…not that owning my own place in London is going to happen, but a poor little wage slave can dream.