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I have always loved cats and serve on the Committee of the London Cat Club; it probably runs in the family – my mother's love of cats came from both of her parents; my grandfather loved black cats like Tommy, who is pictured below.
It was nice that neighbours would usually tell people looking for a kitten to ask my grandmother first, because she always took good care of the mother cat.
As children, my brother and I had been nagging our parents for ages about getting a cat and in the early 1970s we had Monty, a white-with-black bicolor.
Monty, sadly, only lived for a couple of years and in 1977 we bought Kipling, a black-and-white bicolor who was a brown-Burmese cross to who-knows-what.
In 1981, we acquired a stray who we named Christie; yet another black-and-white bicolor, she was found wandering around the village and nobody came forward to claim this lost cat, despite much effort to identify her. Christie turned out to be a real lap-cat and a good companion to my brother and I as we grew up. She lived until just before my parents moved to Suffolk in 1997 and overall had a reasonably long life for a stray with an unknown past.
By the early 1990s, it was becoming clear that Kipling was getting old and infirm and we searched for another cat to join the family. Because Kipling had been such a lovely pet, we wanted another part-Burmese and as luck would have it, the housekeeper of an occasional cat breeder had forgotten how fast cats are and allowed a calling Burmese queen to escape. She produced three all-black kittens and one of them made a beeline for us when we visited.
We weren't prepared for the changes to our lives that Toffee, as we called him, would cause; we vaguely knew that there was such a thing as a "black Burmese" cat (a colour not part of the breed description), so at the National Cat Club show in 1992, we searched around for a cat that looked like Toffee.
Eventually, I dragged my mother over to a cage and said "Hey! This one looks just like Toffee". The cat in question was Addeish Champlers Jovita (72, F) being exhibited by Jon Trotter who on seeing the photograph of Toffee, said sadly "I suppose you've had him neutered?" and proceeded to explain to us what the "Bombay" was. From then on, I knew that this was the cat for me!
Toffee bore an incredible resemblance to the "real" Bombay; in fact, in one book of cat breeds, he didn't only look like the type of cat, he looked like the actual cat pictured; you would have thought it was him!
At the Kentish Cat Society show in 1992, we were in the vetting-in queue with Toffee bound for the Household Pet section and next to us was Boronga Black Shergar (72, M). His owner, Joy Reynolds, on seeing Toffee uttered the immortal words: "My God, it could be his son!" I guess that said it all, really!
I was living in London in 1995 when I had a call from my parents; sadly, Toffee had been killed in a road accident. He was a prolific mouser, but normally never went far from the house; however the heatwave of that year had, according to the vet, made many small animals "go crazy"; several cats and small dogs had apparently died in similar circumstances.
Toffee will be fondly remembered and is pictured above with Christie; though they were not the best of friends, cold winters do make for strange bedfellows!
Meanwhile in 1994 my parents aqcuired a three-month-old black male kitten called Charlie. Having been warned for medical reasons against early neutering and with no reason to question the sex of the kitten, nobody thought anything of him tagging along with a large fluffy ginger cat named Barnaby.
Early one morning, after failing to come in for the night, Charlie was found in the field next door lying in an "interesting" pose with Barnaby; this prompted the response "Ah! My cat 'as a perversion!" from Barnaby's owner. It seems that Rosine had taken Barnaby in as a stray and because had never sprayed or fought with other cats, assumed he was already neutered. Charlie had never "called" so there had been no suggestion that "he" was in fact a "she".
The hastily renamed Romney (she came from somewhere on the Marsh) bore four kittens: a black-and-white bicolor and three variously patterned tabbies.
Two of the tabbies were vaccinated and sold; the buyer later sent a letter and photographs; the boy was "daft as a brush" and the girl, true to her stripes, maintained a huge territory bordered by those of twelve other cats, whom she took great pride in keeping out of her "patch", a big house set in a lot of land!
My mother named the two remaining kittens, both semi-longhairs, Alina (calico tabby and white) and Juvé (black-and-white bicolor). Alina was named for her lovely coat that resembled the hair on a collectible doll called Aline; Juvé for Juventus FC, often referred to as I Bianconeri, the "black and whites".
Alina was a beautiful cat but also somewhat of a clown; if one made too much of a fuss of her she would turn on her back and fall off the sofa; when drinking from a bowl of water, she sometimes would place one paw on the water surface, as if to keep it still – we never did find out what she was trying to do!
Juvé was more placid; she would sit quitely on a lap and purr or else lie in the window watching the world go by. Outside she would roam around and one evening encountered a huge toad sitting near the house. Juvé was really puzzled by this harmless, but strange, creature – she could not figure it out!
With the death of Toffee, we lost a good friend and my mother wanted another part-Burmese cat; she eventually found a cat that was a Brown Burmese crossed with a Red Persian and whom she named Johnson for Grahame Johnson, the piano accompanist of Hyperion Schubert Edition fame. Johnson was born on 27th March 1996 and in fact was the son of Toffee's mother's sister and therefore, Toffee's cousin – talk about the long arm of coincidence!
We like beautiful cats and my mother kept an eye open for a similar cat to take on as a pet and, if all went well, to cross with Johnson; the idea being to let them have one litter together and then neuter them. She found one at Adisham in Kent, a black half-Russian Blue, whose pedigree mother was Denillanne Serenity, from one of Denise Whitehair's (Foxboro' Kennels) lines.
Ella was born on 27th August 1996 and named after Ella Fitzgerald, a singer who often appeared on the old 78 rpm records that my father collected. Burmese cats "mature" early and Johnson was no exception; he was all over Juvé at five months old! By 1997, Ella was a year old, rather late coming into season; but once Johnson had got over the shock of her chasing him, they mated in early September; on 16th November 1997, three kittens were born.
The kittens were born in the early hours of the morning, a blue female and two black males; it was worth visiting that week; I'd never seen new-born kittens!
The kittens were strong, too and all had opened their eyes by thirteen days instead of the usual three weeks. We homed one of the kittens and kept the other two, naming the black male Felix and the blue female Sapphire.
Sapphire was rather aloof, though she would sit with a human or occasionally with her brother. Johnson and Felix were quite the father-and-son team and would often sit keeping each other company, especially after Sapphire left us.
Felix was so named because it is almost Latin for "happy" and he was definitely the happy cat; he would trot around following people some times and being fussed over; at others would get up to comical antics, such as sitting upright in my rucksack when I visited or trying to eat odd bits of paper.
Sapphire was so named because she was a beautiful cat with the full Russian Blue colouring; a talkative cat, she would trot around after people meowing to them; I wonder what she was saying all that time? Sadly, we lost Sapphire in July 2005; she had been ill with cancer for two years but had always been comfortable enough until then. She was buried her favourite corner of the garden and later on we found a statue that resembled her and placed it there.
In December 2000 the family aqcuired a pedigree cat for the first time: Ineluki Syringa Superba, or "Siri". Siri was a Lilac Asian Self, one of the colours in which the Bombay breed is now available. She was an exibitionist, as is normal for her breed and we did show her a few times. Sadly, Siri died in 2008 from cat 'flu; as for all viruses, including human 'flu, no vaccine is a guarantee.
Many of Sapphire's most endearing characteristics derived from her maternal grandmother, a Russian Blue; when we lost her, my mother thought it would be nice to have another like her, perhaps a pedigree who needed a home. Annwyn was an ex-breeding queen who had not had much success as such and needed a home; she arrived in January 2006 and settled in straight away!
In 2004 a friend of my mother had to home her late mother's cat and this resulted in a black-and-brown tabby named Rosie joining the family. Sadly, she died in January 2006 from a variety of natural causes; having originally been a rescue and having spent two spells in an animal sanctuary, nobody knew her full medical history; at least she ended on a happy couple of years.
One day at the local vet, a notice caught our eye – "Part-Burmese kittens for sale". We know how nice Burmese cats are and since the death of Rosie, there could be said to be a "vacancy" 
. On the Friday that week, in pouring rain, from a house in the middle of the countryside of Bungay, we picked up the new kitten and it was decided that she would be named Rosie since she too was a tabby, albeit ticked in the manner of an Asian Black Ticked Tabby.
Having lost my father and several cats within a few months, including Johnson in November 2008, we decided not to go looking for new cats; however, if one came along that seemed right, we would consider the matter. An advert in our local newsagent for some kittens caught our eye; it seemed by the tone to be reasonable and probably someone who cared for their cats. The litter included a ginger tabby and, as it happened, we had never actually owned a ginger cat.
Sporting a good ginger tabby pattern, the kitten was named Freddie, after Freddie Ljungberg a former Arsenal footballer who was famous for his red hair!
Jensen was a real mystery. Out for a walk one evening I stopped to pet a cat that was sitting by the roadside, presumably a new arrival in the area; he was very friendly but constantly meowing, as if asking for something. The next day one of our neighbors came calling at every house in the street looking for the owners of this cat; it seemed that he had been sleeping rough under cars.
That evening we took him in, gave him some food and made a big fuss of him. He had no collar nor microchip and even the postman, familiar with the local cats, didn't know him. Given how far cats can walk and that sometimes they are stolen but manage to escape, he could have come from anywhere. We advertised in the local papers and shops, but nobody claimed him. In the end, my mother named him Jensen after John Jensen a former Arsenal footballer.
We did, via a strange coincidence, later find out who he belonged to! They had been on holiday and their daughter, who was looking after the cats, hadn't seen our advertisements. It seems likely that Jensen had been rabbiting in a different place than usual and got lost! After some discussion, it was agreed that because he had settled in so well it wouldn't be fair to move him again.
Jensen was born in July 1996 and passed away on February 14th 2011; it was nice to have him here for a short time and we think he enjoyed his stay.
Alina had become my mother's favourite cat and was missed terribly. She resembled a Norwegian Forest Cat, having a semi-longhair coat in calico and white. My mother decided to seek a pedigree cat who needed a home; Missy and her friends had lost their owner in 2010. The lady's son knew nothing about cats, so there were thirteen looking for homes. My mother had at last found a cat similar to Alina and Missy mirrors much of Alina's personality too!
