Soon after moving to Oxfordshire we started looking for two
kittens, a Siamese brother and sister.
We wanted seal point so we bought various cat magazines and found a pair
the right age in Weston-super-Mare. This
was not quite the nightmare it might have been in terms of getting them as we
were able to view them on one of our weekend trips to Cornwall. It was a long way to take them in a covered
basket, though, and I can remember a lot of screaming going on between Weston
and Warborough. In the end we bought a
cat basket with a wire frame that was much better and we have used that ever
since, even though it is now rather larger than we need. We decided to train them onto leads so they
could not escape onto the main road and because it would be easier having them
on leads in Cornwall. Our cottage in
Warborough was a very small end of a terrace of three and set at right angles
to the main road but the main road was an A road leading from Wallingford to the M40. There was an unadopted
road at the back of the houses which led to a field and we realised this would
be a good place for walks. The first
summer we took them out, round the end of house and down the lane to the field. Maui was quite
happy to do this but not Rua because of having to walk round the house on the
main road, albeit for about fifteen feet.
Also the field was a very popular dog-walking place so after the first
year we gave up taking them there.
Instead we would put their leads on and then sit them on the garden
chairs. The leads gave them room to
wander in the flower bed. There was only
one occasion when there was a problem.
One summer Sunday they went into the flower bed where there must have
been a frog which attacked Maui. We
found him foaming at the mouth but he was otherwise unharmed.
When young, these two were very keen climbers. Typical Siamese. Their idea of fun was to get onto the roof of
the garden shed. They also climbed
inside the house and up me if I was standing cooking. Shimming up the curtains was another favourite. At great expense we had double French doors
put between the kitchen and the sitting room so we could keep them off the good
furniture but if we shut the doors we had problems with smoke from the fire not
being able to circulate so we had to abandon that. In the end they completely destroyed the
upholstery on the suite by scratching it. They also climbed a lot in Cornwall.
They were latch-key cats as we were out at work all
day. Initially we had solid fuel central
heating. As we were often out for twelve
hours, John used to get dressed in old clothes and stoke the boiler before he
put on his work clothes and went off to London but at least it meant they were warm.
They managed quite well being left on their own for long periods. As kittens they may have got bored, though,
and there was a famous occasion when I got home to find wool draped all over
the upstairs, down the turning staircase, which led into the kitchen, and
around the kitchen! They were introduced
to trips to Cornwall (a six hour journey) very early and managed well with
this. They seemed to enjoy Cornwall
where the garden was long and untamed.
We would sit them in the front garden and take them into the much bigger
back garden although we did not generally leave them unattended.
Rua on the garden wall in Cornwall
In 1995 we moved to Blakesley in Northamptonshire. The house was much bigger and situated on a
dead-end lane in a village. However,
there was no gate and we quickly realised that we could not let them run loose
as they had no road sense. Instead they
were put on their leads in the garden and often sat under the large apple tree.
Maui, however, continued to fancy wandering so I used to put
him on his lead and take him a short way down the lane to a field that he could
walk round. There were other cats there,
though, so it was a bit risky. He also
enjoyed exploring behind the house across the road which had a positive junk
yard behind it. On a couple of occasions
he untethered himself and made his way across the road but of course he then
got stuck and had to be rescued as his lead would become caught up in the
rubbish.
Maui in Blakesley
In November 1999 we had a terrible house fire. Our first thought was to rescue the cats who
were very frightened by the smoke alarms and started running all over the
house, which had three storeys. Then we
realised that the cat basket was in the garden shed! Ever since then we have kept it in the house,
no matter how inconvenient. With the aid
of one of the neighbours we managed to catch them and put them in the
basket. Then we took them across the
road to his house. It was Saturday
afternoon so could have been much worse but we had to find somewhere for them to
stay immediately as the house was uninhabitable. Fortunately I had a colleague who lived
around the corner. She and her husband
were cat lovers but our two were not used to other cats. My colleague took them in and managed to shut
her cats in one part of the house and ours in another. However, it was not going to work. On the
Monday my sister arrived from Shropshire.
She very kindly offered to give them a temporary home so off they went
to her house. She commuted and was at
work all day. One day she inadvertently
locked Rua in her bedroom. I am afraid
the result was a ruined sheepskin under blanket. Fortunately at that time we had an excellent
cattery where these two had spent two long ‘holidays’ while we went to New
Zealand. They were able to take them at
short notice so after a week we removed them from Shropshire and took them to
Henley until we had settled in a rented house.
We were in this house for over a year. The cats were now twelve. At May bank holiday we brought them down to
Cornwall as usual. At this point Rua
took ill. We went to town one day and
returned to find blood on the carpet. Of
course we did not have a vet in Cornwall but she was taken straight to the vet
when we got home. The ultimate diagnosis
was cancer of the pancreas. She had
surgery before we went on our summer holiday but we realised that she would not
survive long term. In fact she kept
going until the following January. We
therefore started looking in cat magazines for Siamese kittens to be a
replacement sister for Maui. We came to
Cornwall for Christmas at which point Maui took ill. Again we could not do anything until we got
home. He was very ill although he kept
perking up so neither we nor the vet could identify the problem. (It turned out to be feline anaemia which can
only be diagnosed post mortem.) We were
still in the rented house which was fully carpeted and there were
accidents. Not what we would have
wanted. Finally he died overnight while
in hospital. He never made it back to
Blakesley.
In the meantime Rua continued to go
downhill. When I went to
work I used to leave her on the sofa with my childhood teddy bear for a
companion. She outlived Maui by just ten
days. On the Friday we moved back into Blakesley. We were able to carry her round the house and
show her the huge changes but she was being fed liquids only and I now think
she should have been put out of her misery sooner. Over the weekend we had a visit from a young
friend who had known her all her life so she was able to say her
farewells. On the Monday I took her
to the vet for the fatal injection. We were then faced with
the realisation that we could not replace the cats until my redundancy took
effect as we would not be at home to settle them in. So it was several months before we acquired Nui and Iti.
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