ADSactly Personal: A Tale of Two Kitties

When I was a teenager, I somehow managed to be a magnet to a beautiful stray cat in the village and somehow I convinced my mum to take her in too.

This was our house a long time ago:

The first kitty was a cat whom we ended up calling Smudge. She was back, ginger and white.

She had a very small dainty frame, and was as feline, as feline could be.

When we first met her, she came to our door miaowing pitifully, so we gave her some milk and food outside.

My mum wouldn’t let me bring it inside, instead, she said if it is still about tomorrow, then you can take it inside.

So I spent the whole night wishing that this beautiful creature would still be there in the morning and it must have had the edge on my mum wishing the opposite, as it was still out there in the morning, cold and miserable and only too happy to be let in and hide underneath the nice warm peat burning stove.

It took a few days before she would allow us to stroke her and a few weeks before she would come and sit on our laps, but she was the best cat anyone could wish for.

She would come and sit on my lap, as I’d tell her about my day at school, purring in the right places and stayed with me, while any tears subsided.

My hands used to be permanently covered in scratches from playing with her, my hands were practice mice and she was a good mouser.

But despite all the love and attention she got and a lovely warm stove to huddle under when it was cold, there came a point when she decided to move to pastures new, after several years of us she must have got bored, or something.

We went for a walk on the moors behind our house and she decided to come with us and at some point, she went her own way and that’s was that she never came home.

After days of worrying, we found out she has decided to move in with the next door neighbor.

This lovely lady (said through gritted teeth) was spoiling her rotten, Smudge got her own armchair with a regularly topped up hot water bottle, a cat cozy on the radiator, she wasn’t going anywhere, least of all home to me.

But, there was another cat also who had come to stay with us at this point…

He was a kool kat called Nails.

Nails was completely my cat, he wouldn’t go to anyone else, just me. I liked that.

He did like to get into little tight spots though, he got stuck once for a day or so.

Our house was built the way that my mum and stepfather planned it and so there were stages when it was wood and plasterboard.

Especially finishing touches like my window sill desk in my bedroom, there was a little gap into the wall just above the window sill and guess where Nails managed to squeeze into and he wasn’t able to turn around to come out again.

He didn’t show for dinner, then when I went to my room I could hear this faint miaow. Or so I thought, I thought it was my imagination at first, but then I realized, found him and managed to pull him out.

He was one grateful kitty, but it didn’t stop him getting trapped again one day. (Grrrr)

He’d also disappear for weeks on end sometimes, so long that we’d thought that was that, then he would appear starving, although he didn’t look it in the slightest. He just liked his little holiday, although no-one would admit to looking after him.

He would also like to curl up with Smudge and with Smudge’s little kitten called Waddle (it was called something else, but it waddled so the name stuck).

Cats are independent though, it makes you feel privileged when they want to spend time with you. Just enjoy it while it lasts…

Even when I left the Isle of Lewis to live with my father, Nails remained the family pet, well until the neighbor the other side decided that he was a good ratter and kept him locked in his ample sized shed, and then coaxed it inside for him to never go home either!

When I went back to visit my mum on the Isle of Lewis, I visited both the cats (ok supposedly the neighbors) but the cats didn’t remember me or chose not to recognize me and ran away, it was very sad.

At least they got looked after well.

And there was me leaving them anyway to go to pastures new too. They only did what I did, without looking back.

Words and pictures: @hopehuggs