Bonnie

I have had six cats altogether in the last twenty years or so, and yet I never once set out to get a cat. One of my adopted felines came from when I was teaching a pupil (I am a driving instructor) and his next door neighbour moved and left their cat behind. She was out in the cold for nearly two months before I found out, and all the people in this little close were complaining about her getting in their houses but not one of them picked up the phone and phoned the RSPCA, The Cat Protection League, the Blue Cross or any one of many charities who would have come and got her. I was more angry with them than the people who left her behind in the first place! Before that, about 17 years ago, my daughter found a tabby cat in a phone box. She was a bag of bones and she brought her home. She then had kittens and Bonnie, the little darling in the photograph, was the only one who survived. I couldn't bear to part with her. The mother cat, after 12 years, changed dramatically after my husband died. She stopped getting on my lap, wouldn't come and sleep with me any more, and packed her little furry suitcases and moved next door but one. The lady there kept bringing her back, but she kept going back there, so that is now where she lives. She is about eighteen now and still going strong. Bonnie will be seventeen in March and after all these years has finally got her wish to be an only child! She is spoilt rotten, has someone to sleep with and the best food available. She is almost smiling! I am a doggie person really, and I hope no more stray cats come and find me. If they do, though, they will be made welcome. When I lost my dog last year, bonnie spent two weeks sleeping on his grave in the back garden. She could have had no idea where he was buried, but animals know a lot more than we do!