Most of my life has had a cat or 2, or 3, or 4 in it. Mum had a cat, Susie when I was a little girl, and when I left home , finished my nurse training and got a flat of my own, the first thing I did was get a kitten. I named him Freeway after a dog (!) I’d seen in a TV programme, “Hart to Hart”, and he grew up a beauty.

After a couple of years I had to move out of the flat and back into nursing accommodation, so my Mum gave Freeway a home and he lived a great life with her being pampered and fed tasty morsels whenever he wanted, I think it was the best thing I ever did for her as she loved him to bits.

Eventually I got my own place again, a rented house with a big garden. A lady up the road had kittens going for free, Ben was a little lad so we walked up the road and chose this little lady.

We named her T.C, after Topcat and as soon as she reached adulthood she promptly got herself pregnant and had her first litter of kittens.

2 of the kittens went to good homes, but I couldn’t resist keeping 2 for us

E.D and Wispa are the two at the back, Sam in front went to a very good home where he was loved and looked after, I got regular updates on him.

We moved house to my first home purchase, a flat, and the kittens came too.

Wispa growing up

Wispa was as mad as a box of frogs, nervous of people and charged about like a squirrel, she also had a skin condition and her fur came off in patches where she’d itched at scabs, but we took her to the vet and an injection cured it.

E.D (after Oedipus 🙂 ) grew up to be bigger than her Mum or sister, and was much more placid, maybe not as pretty as Wispa, but easier to live with!

she had a great fondness for lying upside down

The twins

One day as I was arriving home from work I happened to glance up at the flat windows, (I was on the 2nd floor) and saw T.C jump out of the little window I’d left open, and run down the side of the building. I thought she’d kill herself as I saw it happen, but no, she ran off into the park where she was joined by several boyfriends and proceeded to have a gang-bang. Horrific I tell you, but nothing I could do to stop it, and she didn’t seem to mind. SO we had another litter of kittens, all who went to good homes, but I got her spayed quick smart after that! And Wispa & E.D!

Wispa and E.D loved babysitting the kittens

The recessioon in the early 90’s hit me hard, interest rates were so high that my flat was repossessed, but as luck would have it the cleaning lady where I worked had a second house for rent, so we moved there.

Wispa and Mum T.C taking over the bed

when Mum went into hospital I had to take the two cats she had at the time Peanut and Einstein. I worried that my cats wouldn’t be happy, but I couldn’t let Mum down, and I needn’t have worried, everyone just got on.

Einstein

Peanut

My best friend over this time was a girl I’d met at work who also had a couple of cats, and I’d go to her house and feed hers when she went on holiday. Unfortunately bit by bit she became an alcoholic, and didn’t get her cats spayed. As her house backed onto farm land, the cats were practically feral, and eventually when the neighbours called the cat protection people in, she had 26 cats coming in and out. One of her cats that I really liked had produced 2 beautiful ginger Toms, and I agreed to take them in before the protection people got them. These were the first boy cats I ever had.

Hercules and Iolus (Herky & Yoyo for short) named after another TV programme “The Legendary Journeys of Hercules” 🙂

Herky

Yoyo

under the watchful eye of T.C

By the time I moved out of the house to come up north, T.C and E.D had died, and the girl who was lodging with me wanted to keep Peanut, Einstein and Wispa. They all went to other homes eventually. The boys came with me, first to my flat in South Shields, and then to live with me and Phil. The boys were great characters, Herky was a beautiful loving cat, but didn’t like Phil for about 6 years and then became his best buddy, and Yoyo was a cheeky little short legged guy with the cutest face. By the time I moved up, I was into photography and had a digital camera, so the rest of my cat pictures belong to a different blog.