Happy Birthday Puss Cat's

Where does the time go?. It only seems like five minutes ago that we went to a local farm and bought two kittens home that were for sale.

Despite being as different as chalk and cheese, they are brother and sister. Oscar is the ginger male, he rules the roost in all respects, he's the boss and no questions asked. Molly is his black and white sister, she's gentle and sweet tempered.


They absolutely drove us mad for the first six months of their lives, wreaking havoc and ruining (amongst other things) a leather sofa, several houseplant's and the carpet. Curtains and Christmas tree's were climbed and food was no longer able to be left on the worktop to cool (this lesson was learnt the hard way) but for all that they are, and always have been, incredibly good natured and excellent company.

So it was a big shock to me yesterday when I looked at the calendar and saw that they were thirteen years old!! ... which I guess (though I'm loathe to think it) makes them fairly old in cat terms. Luckily it was a gorgeously sunny day outside and so they were able to indulge in a spot of sunbathing before they were treated to poached chicken for dinner which is their absolute favourite.

It got me thinking about famous literary cat's, I couldn't think of many but these are the one's that came straight to mind ...

1. Dinah - Alice's cat in 'Alice in Wonderland'
2. The Cheshire Cat - 'Alice in Wonderland'
3. Crookshanks - Hermione's cat in 'Harry Potter'
4. Mrs Norris - Argus Filch's cat in 'Harry Potter'
5. Dr Seuss's 'Cat in the Hat'
6. Beatrix Potter's 'Tom Kitten'
7. Figaro - Gepetto's cat in 'Pinnochio' (I'm hoping he was in the book)
8. Jonas - Merricat's cat in 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle'

If we could stretch it to wild cat's (and why not?), then there's also ...

9. Tigger - 'Winnie The Pooh'
10. Bagheera - 'The Jungle Book'
11. Shere Khan - 'The Jungle Book'
12. Aslan - 'The Chronicles of Narnia'
13. Richard Parker - 'Life of Pi'

I remember that there was a cat in 'Coraline' and also one that Cassandra was fond of in 'I Capture the Castle', but their names escape me. And not forgetting of course, the famous 'cat' in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. Perhaps he wasn't in the book, still he was absolutely gorgeous and stole the scene whenever he appeared, not easy to do when your co-star is the utterly gorgeous Audrey Hepburn!

Anyway, Happy 13th Birthday Oscar and Molly, many happy returns!