My Life on a Plate

Waifs and Strays

Reading how Mavis acquired her cat reminded me of an incident that occured on holiday a couple of years ago. It seems we all have this love of animals in common too.

Almost all the animals I have owned or looked after have been rejects. Unwanted pets from friends and neighbours, homeless animals that have wandered into my life and victims of accidents. Mice, birds, cats, dogs, fish, tortoises and even a pigeon called Walter and a cockerel called Doodle Doo have been part of my life since as far back as I can remember. Sadly, my pets are all in the great menagerie in the sky now, apart from Oscar the tortoise who has moved on to live with another of his species. A female at that; I think he too thought he'd died and gone to heaven, but that's another story. For various reasons, we have decided no more pets, but if something turned up on my doorstep, I doubt I'd refuse it.

Anyway, we always took our last dog Franklyn on holiday with us and he spent many happy times on the Isle of Wight, one of our favourite places. In 2003 we had a holiday booked there for early September, in a dog-friendly self catering house. Sadly, Franklyn passed away very suddenly at the end of August, leaving us devastated and not looking forward to a holiday without him. But it was paid for and I have two adopted donkeys at a sanctuary on the island that I like to visit. So in very low spirits we set off on our holiday.

The house was lovely and more tears were shed as we imagined how Franklyn would have loved exploring the place from top to bottom. On the first day I sat in the garden with a coffee and was approached by a fat ginger cat, mewing in a pathetic manner. After a bit of fussing and a saucer of milk we left to go out for the day. On return there was fat cat sitting outside our door. He-who-knows-it-all hubby concluded it was a female and had recently had a litter. I visited the shops and brought in a collection of Tuna and Salmon which fat cat devoured as if it hadn't seen food in months.

Over the next week fat cat became part of the family. Food and milk, fussing and purring, playing and cuddling became more frequent and it seemed we'd attracted another stray. Animals know who loves them and fat cat spent most evenings on my lap before retiring into a comfortable chair. In the morning the cat was always on the bed when I woke.

Towards the end of the holiday I started to worry about what would happen to fat cat when we went home. We even contemplated smuggling it on the ferry and bringing it to live with us. But there was always the chance it had an owner so we set off making enquiries.

After knocking on many doors and entering into a lot of conversations about pets we were still none the wiser. In desperation, we approached a block of flats and eventually someone informed us they knew of a fellow resident who'd lost a cat.

When the lady opened her door it revealed a room full of cats, dogs and parrots and she was over the moon that someone had found her missing feline, incidentally a male called Sidney. lol She came back to the house with us to retrieve him, relating how she'd been looking for him all week, even searching the streets in the middle of the night. Sidney, who was happily curled up in a chair, shot like a pellet from a gun when he was confronted by his owner. I've never seen such a guilty expression on an animal's face. It seemed Sidney had taken us for a ride and had just fancied a holiday of his own. Crafty things cats, but all ended happily for him.

Fat cat Sidney and my adopted donkeys, Jacko and Fred.