| Cats! Between us, Graham and I have two of the little darlings. Ginger is mine and Tinkerbell is his. When he moved in a year ago, I had three � Bruno, Fred and Ginger (Astaire and Rogers). I�d had Bruno a very long time; he was about 16 I think. A very big, bad-tempered black cat and he took no prisoners. Fred and Ginger were brother and sister, born in my ex-boyfriend back garden behind his runner beans. They had two other brothers Sooty and William, who unfortunately, over the past two years have both met sticky ends. Their mum, we called her �Minky,� is a wondrous sort of tortoiseshell who did have a twin sister, that we lost track of � as you do with feral cats. Minky�s dad was �Scruffy,� a peculiar old thing with long black fur which he plucked out in the summer; he did look a sight �black and pink patches � but it always grew back beautifully for the winter. Scruffy and family adopted my ex-boyfriend, and my ex-boyfriend adopted them, he really had no option. And when Minky gave birth to her kittens behind his runner beans we had no option but to adopt them too. I decided that I�d bring Fred and Ginger to my own home and all the additions were sending Peter a bit paranoid!! We hadn�t handled the kittens enough when they were small � Minky wouldn�t let us! The number of saucers she knocked out of his hand when he was feeding them became a bit of a running joke � one small cat terrorising a grown man so! Fred and Ginger were wild � I tried � how I tried to make friends with them. Then I decided perhaps I�d better let them have their own space, and make friends with me when they felt ready. Ginger did. Fred didn�t. One day, she just hopped up on my knee next to Bruno (with whom incidentally she was absolutely besotted) and the rest was history. Fred never did want to know me, and after five years of struggling to get him to accept me, it was a sad day when I took him to the vet expecting him to be put to sleep, he was still a full tomcat, unhandle-able and potentially dangerous. However, after a phone call from one of the vet�s nurses it was agreed she could see if she could re-home him after neutering, which is exactly what happened, and I like to refer to him having gone to the �potty pussy sanctuary�, whereas in fact, he is actually �head mouser� to the costume storage department for a local television station, and from reports hear that he�s very much happier in that role. Bruno, sadly at the beginning of 2003 developed kidney failure and had to be put to sleep, he�d had a good innings, but it was still sad to see him go, as it always is � THEY�RE NOT JUST CATS, THEY�RE FAMILY MEMBERS. And each one has its own character. I�ve never found 2 the same. Ginger has certainly become far more extrovert since Fred and Bruno�s departures. Fred used to instil in Ginger a kind of contagious panic, if the doorbell rang, Fred would fly under the bed followed by Ginger. She would never come out and say hello to anyone when Fred was with us, now, she wants to meet and make friends with everyone. She�s become very chatty, and you can almost hold a �conversation� with her. Bedtime is best. She doesn�t even need to be in the bedroom to know I�ve switched off the light and settled into bed. Within a minute or two she comes for her night-time lovings. She kind of �head dives� into my hand, flinging herself down and rolling around with her feet in the air, purring away like a kettle on the boil, and just loving having her tummy tickled. It�s just so nice and comforting, and I know she disappears as soon as she thinks I�m asleep! She seems to think it�s her job to send me to sleep. Tinkerbell joined us just before Christmas 2002, supposed to be Graham�s cat! She came from a Cat Rescue Charity, a funny little black and white kitten, which I think people in the USA refer to as a �Tuxedo Cat�! You know? Dinner jacket, white shirt, gloves and socks!! She had been abandoned in the student quarter of Cardiff (where I live), in a cardboard box and her whiskers had been cut off! As soon as she arrived she made herself at home, but for months Ginger kept her firmly in her place (Graham�s bedroom). Tinkerbell is a very lovey-dovey little creature and would wake Graham up just to give him a kiss (that was popular!). I�d sometimes see Ginger sitting on the end of my bed keeping a weather eye on the hallway and if so much as a white whisker poked itself out of Graham�s bedroom door, she was off down the corridor like a bullet from a gun. Poor Tinks � it�s a miracle she survived all the duffings up she got. Tinkerbell has grown quickly (she�s had to), and now gives back as good as she gets � well she can � she�s heavier than Ginger now, and I think still has a good bit of growing to go. We were beginning to think they�d never make friends, but our holiday in Zakynthos seems to have cured that problem. They seem the best of friends now, and even curl up on the same chair together and I can imagine when winter draws in, there�ll be just one big black, ginger and white ball all curled up together. They now play together and are practically inseparable. That makes me happy. I've had cats for a long time now, many now having curled up on the velvet cushions in cat heaven; these include Oliver, Muffin, dear old Buster, The Baby and sadly now Bruno. I did have another ... Miss Mouse, but tragically she was run over before I had a chance to take any photos of her. I know this doesnt really count as "cats" but I'm also attaching a picture of "Bailey", my best friend (Wendy)'s miniature schnauser. He's a star ... and people who've never met him but seen his pictures, always ask after him. He has the ability to make people ... even non-dog-lovers like me ... fall in love with him. |
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