Stone cat

We once had a cat. She was this funny sloth-like thing. She never rushed anywhere and I can scarcely remember her running, even when she was young. She’d just wobble along, constantly finding her balance and prodding at the floor with her paws, as if she were making sure it was steady ground and safe to walk on. Her name was Flubber.

When she was outside and wanted letting in she used to stand on the backdoor step, look up at my bedroom window and call to me… by name. ‘Jaaaames’. She was a clever cat.

Obviously it wasn’t as clearly defined as what the human vocal chords can produce but she made a really good effort at it. I pointed it out to my friend L. and he could clearly hear ‘Jaaaames’ too. We still laugh about it to this day.

I think that over the years she had heard my Dad calling me from downstairs and had copied him. Although rather than telling me there was a cup of tea waiting for me down here, she just wanted letting in.

She was a beautiful Persian cat, although she had her bad hair days and needed a lot of grooming. On a good day she’d look like this…

But on a bad day…

The picture above is what she looked liked when we found her. We rescued her (well, my Dad did- I was only about seven) from the woods behind my Nan & Granddad’s house. I found her hanging by her tail from barbed wire. Although her coat padded her out she was actually just a bag of bones, another day or two and she’d of been a goner. My Dad had to cut some of her tail off to get her lose, she didn’t like that but it had to be done.

We decided to keep her. She lived a long time with us, at least ten years. She was a proper house cat but no wonder she didn’t want to go out much, she’d had her fair share of danger hanging from barbed wire staring death in the face. She'd spend most of her time either at my Dad’s feet or sun bathing on the garden patio, which is where she eventually passed away.

I’ll never forget the time that she almost gave me a heart attack. It was late at night and I went into my sister’s bedroom to turn off her light. As soon as I flicked the switch I saw a pair of huge glowing eyes staring at me from the other side of the window. I immediately thought of the film Salems Lot…

Needless to saw it was only Flubber. She’d somehow managed to get stuck on the roof underneath my sisters bedroom window.

The reason I got thinking about old Flubber was because of the mysterious stone cat that has recently turned up in my garden…

No one in my family knows where it came from. It seems to have just appeared one day.

I’ll leave a saucer of milk out for it tonight.