Introducing Misty......
When my youngest was aged 4 to 5, he use to play out with his older brother and sister. Now it's not as bad as it sounds, as the street we live on is set way back from the ones surrounding it and in fact when new people enter the street they believe they are turning into an alleyway, it's like a little secret hidden in London....I love it.
Anyway he came running in shouting at the top of his little voice, "mam, mam, look what I got, oh innit lovely...can I, can I keep it, aww go on mam, can I, it's lovely"
As I turned to look at what it was he had brought home *this* time. Indeed, Callum had at this stage of his little life brought home a small zoo full of animals, a mouse, a frog with one of it's back legs missing, next doors dog, 'cos it looked starved...it was a greyhound, a collection of baby birds, some ants that needed sugar (oh don't ask), a grass hopper and a mangy stray dog...that bit everyone in the family save him and he had even tried to bring home a police horse called Tony, not that the mounted police officer would have let him, but he did cause a huge scene, I thought at the time he would go into the record books as the youngest person ever to be arrested by the met police force.
I was confronted by the most appalling sight, apart from the fact that it was hissing and spitting and in a desperate hurry to get away, the poor little thing was dirty, matted and running alive with fleas. I didn't want it anywhere near my child, but he stamped his little foot, ran off a whole heap of reasons why he should be allowed to keep this animal and even pointed out that we already had a cat flap.
That was over 12 years ago now and as you can see, she is still with us. Very much a friend of the family, but mostly Callum's little mate. While she is getting old now, she tends to sleep most of the day away, she always wants to lie next to him and in fact her favorite place is lying next to him in the sun, while he is on the P.C.
I always know when he is due home, as she wants out the front door to wait for him, she's even been known to walk him to the bus stop and collect him with me from primary school when he was little, she'll curl up on the end of his bed when he is ill.
Misty is devoted to my #2 son and he adores her as well.
He stands 6ft 4in now and is 17, but he always has time for the little cat he brought home from the streets.
I am a sucker for cats. I have been known to adopt a stray in England, and one here in France too. They tend to be kept as farm animals here, left to fend for themselves, feeding off the mice and other pests around the farmyards.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have a pet cat to keep the strays away, you will soon find yourself visited by begging strays. My French adopted stray is spoilt and lazy, as well as affectionate.