MY CATS

I spend a lot of time, relatively speaking, writing about the cats (and dogs) I've been involved in rescuing. Just for a change, here's a piece about my cats. The photographs were taken today with my new camera, a Which? best buy which I may do a short piece about on my Freethinking blog.

I'll start with Ted who is a rather endearing sod.

Susan brought him home from Carol's when he literally jumped into her arms and she couldn't resist him. When he first arrived he tried to establish himself as the boss, more out of insecurity than anything else. He's really a laid-back cat who loves people, and has never seen an open door -be it house, garage, car, or van- he didn't like.

Lily is now the oldest since Bonnie died a few months ago and is about 8. She's the only surviving kitten of a litter and we've had her since she was 5 weeks old.

She's also rather nervous and tends to get picked on by the others as she never defends herself but always runs away and tends to have her claws out all too readily as several scars on my hands, arms, and chest will attest. Despite this she is friendly and loves attention. She often stays out all night, spending it curled up in a cat kennel at the bottom of our garden.

I sneaked Leo into our house when Susan was away on holiday with her brother and his family. I told her that he was about to be chucked out and Carol couldn't take him. This was a lie as he was actually a three month old kitten which Carol had recently taken in and he just seemed to be begging me to taken him home.

Leo is extremely friendly and affectionate and, like Ted, quite laid-back. It's not unknown for the two of them to sleep next to each other. Although he goes out, he's more a house cat than any of the others. He's also a greedy pig.

Most people go to the doctors and come home with a prescription. Susan came home with Blossom. She was there for an appointment when someone came in and told her about a kitten on the scaffolding outside. We did try and find her owner but to no avail and she ending up staying.

Impossibly cute, when she's friendly she's all over you and the rest of the time she's very stand-offish. Her fur is prone to tats which makes her high maintenance. She often sleeps on the bed next to me.

Max was brought to the shop by someone for a reason I now forget. We'd only recently lost another short haired black and white tom and Max was impossibly friendly so we kept him. He has very long legs which are quite distinctive.

He's a very needy cat who just loves affection and he really can't get enough of it, though he doesn't like being picked up at all and is quite nervous.

Last comes Toffee who conned us. She was handed in at the shop and was exceptionally friendly. She certainly charmed Susan and myself. However, it turned out that she was in heat as after we had her neutered he true character came out. She can be friendly, particularly if she sees us outside, but doesn't like being handled and, unlike all the others, will never sit on a knee, though she does like being stroked. She usually stays out all night which suits me just fine as when she stays in she usually wakes me in the early house by knocking my clock or glasses or whatever is handy onto the floor so I'll let her out.