Pet Points

I’ve been tagged by Maria at First Draft Café. Maria is one of the few bloggers who I know in real life. We joined together to present a creative writing evening for local residents... a most successful event. Now Maria has tagged me and the rules are that I must tell you 10 random things about myself but I'm changing that slightly to 10 facts about me and my pets (not forgetting some cat photos at the end of the post.)

1. The first fact has to be that I still miss my darling dog Josh who died suddenly exactly a year ago.

2. Josh was only my second ever dog. When I met Mr A he came as one of a pair, him and Ben. It was definitely a case of ‘love Mr A, love his dog’.

3. I’ve always had cats since I was a little girl. My first cat was called Timothy.

4. For many years I was the slightly embarrassed owner of two cats who my ex-husband named Plink and Plonk. They were lovely boys but, with names like that, I preferred not to call them in from the front of the house.

5. When I moved in with Mr A we had to introduce Plink and Plonk to Ben. Ben was a very excited dog. ‘Living with cats! Yo and woof!’ How wrong can a dog be? They sat on the dining table and took swipes at his muzzle as he trotted past. ‘What did I do to deserve that?’

6. I had Plink and Plonk for about 19 years... and then came Rosie, a loving little tortoiseshell cat. She had been rescued from a family where the toddler had stabbed one of her kittens with a scissors and thrown another down the stairs. The social services removed Rosie and her surviving kittens and rehomed all but Rosie… until we came along. We had her for almost 17 years. She died two years ago.

7. Long before Rosie was born my mum embroidered a picture of a cat. To our surprise it was our Rosie. She was always being held up next to it to show off the likeness whenever we had visitors.

Wasn't my Mum clever!

8. In March this year, just before mum died, she told me that it was time I got cats again. On her advice I did just that. It was good advice.

9. In March Mabel and Charlie entered our lives. They are middle-aged, blue/grey, girl cats who desperately needed a new home. When we first got them they were very nervous and timid.

10. Mable and Charlie are no longer nervous and timid. Only last night they were racing each other up and down the stairs and leaping across us as we watched the television. It’s good to have pets in the house again.     

Mabel: Why are you disturbing our breakfast?

Charlie: What's this camera doing here?

Now it's time to pass the tag on. I've tried to choose bloggers who I haven't sent awards to recently but who are regular visitors to my blog. Apologies to those I've missed.

Sarah Pearson at Empty White Pages

Rebecca Emin at Ramblings of a Rusty Writer

Ali Bacon at Between the Lines

D. J. Kirkby at D. J. Kirkby

L. G. Smith at Bards and Prophets