Living in the middle of no-where means you can have problems with field-mice. Mother wasn't a cat person, but saw the logic in having a couple of cats. And so, in May 1981, there arrived Tibs(f) and Tabs(m). They slept in the garage to shield them from the fen elements.
Smokey(f) made her appearance in the world through Tibs, in June 1982. In turn, Smokey gave birth to Sooty(f) and Sweep(m) on 21st May 1983. We managed to end the family line following Sooty's birth.
Tabs was hit by a car soon after the twins were born and made the back garden his final resting place.
Sooty and Sweep had cat flu when they were still kittens. They were fighters, though, and survived.
Tiger(m) made his adoptive appearance as a small kitten a few weeks old in 1984. We found him in a sorry state in the back garden, possibly hit by a car so we nursed him back to full health. He soon made friends alongside the other cats.
A spate of cat-naps in the area meant we saw the last of an almost 3 year old Sweep, along with his mother Smokey and Tiger in 1986. It was around this time that Tibs (the original Grandma) started to take holidays away from home for ever-increasing periods of time. The longest time between leave and return was just over a year.
We had a cat called Snowy(f) for 2 or 3 days sometime in the mid-late 80's. She was another stray cat who we nursed back to full health. Once she was better, we let her outside, never to see her again.
Feeling the "emptiness" of so few cats, along came Smudge(f) and Nutmeg(m) in 1990. They had been born in the village. It took time, but they both managed to be accepted by the other cats. Nutmeg was hit by a car a few years later, and Smudge ran away.
The summer of 1994 saw a friend's sister trying to nurse a mother and son stray cat in her flat. Knowing what a catty family we are, they asked if we could take care of them. And so came Mum Cat (who we gave the name Sophie), and Ziggy. Ziggy was hit by a car a matter of months after his arrival. Sophie adjusted to life without him and served the rest of her life with us.
10 months following Sooty and Sophie's deaths, we found ourselves with kittens once more, in the form of Tinkerbelle(f) and Mischief(f). They were born April 23rd 2003, arriving 2 months later. Since the garage has been converted to a granny flat, they are the first cats to be kept as house cats, albeit in the outer hallway where they have access to the outside world!
23rd May 2006 saw the arrival of two more cats, Dusty(f) and Rosie(f). They were two of six kittens which were found abandoned outside the nursery where my sister works.
Unfortunately, Mischief was run over by a farm vehicle on 24th October 2007. We all miss her dearly.
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