Another memory or two of cats

Why is that picture of me (12years) posted here, I hear you asking. 
That is my very first dog.
She is called Gypsy - Gyp - and she was a present for my 7th Birthday from my parents.

Today I found our cat in the airing cupboard, the door was open but she was nowhere to be seen ........ then I saw a pair of eyes looking at me from behind the towels!  It started the memories ..............
Gyp was a tiny puppy when she was given to me and I loved her - as only a seven year old can love a new friend.  I had ownded her for about a fortnight when the man that owned her mother came round to see if everything was ok.  He was very tall and very ugly and my Dad called him 'snaggletooth' but although he frightened me ( he could take her away if he thought I wasn't looking after her proplerly) Gyp was not afraid and when he reached out to stroke her ... she went for him!!!  He said that made her mine as she obviously loved me now.
She lived with me, suffering all my heartbreaks, secrets, joys and friends, for 14years.  She was my treasure and it took a long time before I had another dog.
But Cats!
Now that is a different story.
I don't 'do' cats.
I will not hurt them or see them suffer but  ..... no ...... not a cat person.
My sister had a cat.  Monsterous black thing.  She loved it and it was called what is unpolitically correct now but meant black in those days. 
He hated me!
With a vengeance!
and I hated him!
Meanwhile, we found out that the stray cat came calling cos my Dad was slipping it a saucer of milk every night so in the end Mam said to bring it in and clean it up.  We called her 'Tibby' as she was a brown tabby cat, Dad called her 'skinny' much to my mother's chagrin.  So now we had two cats.
Not long after I had Gyp, Tibby had kittens.  I loved them, and it turned out that there would be several litters until Dad took her to the vets for an operation. (We didn't discuss 'birds and bees' in those days!)  Anyhow I love to play with them and then Tibby would remove the kittens from the kitchen to a place of safety. 
Down the side of the hot water tank in the airing cupboard!
The times my Dad had to take the front off to retrieve those kittens and told me to leave them alone was countless .......... but they were small, and I could cuddle them and ........ much as I tried not to  ...........
One of litters has a particular kitten that I loved very much, a silver grey tabby with a white blaze on its chest who I named Snowy.  I could let him go to live somewhere else ........ so he became mine.  I would guess that this was about the time that my rabbit - Beauty - managed to escape out of her locked hutch in the locked shed!!!  I guess my parents felt guilty about it.
When we moved to Hall Green, I sat in the front of the van with Snowy in my arms and the dog at my feet - I understood the song a bit more now!!!(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1NHh3gE4c0)

One day several years later after Tibby had died, I was walking through a cutthrough and happened to look behind me and there she was, walking quietly along and then .......... not there.  I realise now that there are lots of look alike cats but at the time I found it a bit eerie.

Gyp went to sleep one day while I was at work and slowly the lady next door who had lost her dog took over looking after Snowy until he too died.

I never had a dog again until we went on holiday the year my daughter died.  The Farmer had lots of puppies and they were to be put down so I brought one home with me - Pendine after the local beach nearby (Penny).  She was a border collie and help me to get through that first year without Leanne.  I managed to save the rest of the litter but they did live as long as her.  She eventually had several strokes and had to be put to sleep (after all there years the pain of missing these two dogs is still there - silly me)
During these years we had several more cats, black & white one called Thomas O'Malley, run over by a car - saved by vet, run over by a bus, not saved.
Another cat - Called by C 'Snowy' - she did not live in the house with us - I think Penny put her off although she did tolerate the cat in the end.  Snowy had a heart attack as she walked along the fence.
When I moved to the flat was the time the cats started arriving. 
First off was Coogee  (a town in Australia ) - a black kitten rescued from the next block where she was being mistreated so M took her under her wing.
Then we decided that we would try for kittens in the hope I would get a 'Tortoiseshell' Cat and so we had Harry, a ginger kitten we rescued from a sanctuary.  He was a poorly kitten and I had to make several trips to the vets, which meant Coogee also had to go for a check up.  They were both tomcats!!!
Twelve months after we moved into this house Harry was runover by a bus and so just Coogee lived with us until ...........
M married and then found out that he was mistreating the cat as it had been left with him by a previous girlfriend and so this little wide eyed bundle came to our house. She was tiny, indistinct colouring - just brown and ginger and black (had been a feral cat) - so we called her 'piccola' and I loved her.  She tolerated me, so long as I fed her she acknowleded my presence but sit on my lap, let me pick her up , stroker her ....... no no no no  She love PJ.
Then M heard of a white cat, with black markings, being mistreated and took her home, but she didn't get on with her cats so she came to live with us - Minnie.  She didn't like anyone, human, cat, dog, no-one.  She knew the time and would sit at the end of the drive waiting for the school children to come past and pet her.
Then V told me of a tortoiseshell kitten that needed a home, when we arrived it was a silver tabby but took to us like .......... made it self at home in the car and never needed a basket.  Charlie loved to come out in the car and often came with us to Tesco, remaining in the car while we shopped.  We know where out car was parked as when we came out there would invariably be someone tapping the window at him!!  He was a big cat, could jump sooo high after things.
Coogee died about six months later of a heart attack and then a neighbour found Charlie lying on his doorstep, someone must have run him over and thought that was where he lived.  PJ was devastated.  I have never seen such grief.  I felt so helpless.
The phonecall said that they 'had a cat that needed a home urgently as someone had thrown him out of a car window, there was no room at the cat sanctuary so he was at a dog kennels which wasn't ideal'.  We went.  This brown and black cat was all over PJ, he couldn't move so the decision was made.  The Cat was coughing so we took him to the Vet, when he found out we had only had him for 20 mins he waived the charges but insisted we brought the other cats as a safety thing.
We called him Barney as he came from Tythebarn Lane.  He was a mad head, but the best ratter I have ever seen, I don't know where he found them but they would be laid out at the back door almost every morning.
One day M decided she would like some cats so off we went for her to choose.  While we looked, one kitten climbed up onto PJ's knees, lay on her back and went to sleep.
You know when something tells you what is about to happen?!!!!!
We called her Epinoux - we were supposed to be going to a small village in France - Epinoux le Volves - that weekend but we never made it!!!
Barney and Eppy were like brother and sister, he taught her everything he knew except how to catch mice and rats.  She waited for him to come home in the mornings, they slept together, played together.
Then one day he didn't make the other side of the road and PJ brought him home.  Eppy was lost, we were lost. 
Slowly over time we have all recovered.  We have kept this little black cat who rules our home.  She tolerates me, especially when she is hungry.  She just loves PJ and the feeling is mutual.
She will only go outside if one of us is in sight and leave the garden .......... never.
She owns us
She knows it.

Pictures to follow