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Dr. Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket - Their Story

1987 - 1998 and 1987 - 2007

Hilda - our glamour girl waiting for the telephone to ring?

Another of our laughing cats - Dr. Evadne Hinge whose colouring Tinkerbell nearly mirrors!

Hilda and Evadne (they became so called despite our greatest efforts to stick with Hinge and Bracket) are the only two of my cats that I have known from the moment they were born. My great friend Monica, who helped with the rescue and welfare of hundreds or possibly thousands of cats in her lifetime, introduced me to their mother before they were born. This poor mother-cat had been in the hands of some, shall we say kindly, less than caring owners. Allowed to roam it was inevitable that she should become pregnant, at this point her owners decided, as she approached full term, that they were overfeeding her and so the poor animal was in a thoroughly weakened, starving and dehydrated state by the time she came to the safe haven that was provided by Monica. The privations she had gone through made giving birth to five kittens an exhausting and near-fatal struggle. The first three she delivered with that determined strength that all mothers had, but the last two totally exhausted her and Monica had to extract them and break the protective sacs in an effort to stop them from suffocating. As you may have guessed, the last two out were Hilda and Evadne, but I don't remember in what order. To allow the mother-cat to recover, and there was no guarantee that she would, the five kittens were all hand-reared to start with - this meant a pipette dropper every two hours. To cut a long story short, the recovery was long and arduous but happily the mother cat did recover and get her strength back and was able to start feeding the kittens to give them not only her own natural milk but to pass on some of the immunity that is so important. All the kittens still needed replenishing with the pipette but at least with 'Mum' taking over some of the feeding this became less and less.

All five were very handsome and Mum was a stunner she was a long-haired, ginger, black and white torty (sometimes known as 'calico') and she must have mated with two males because one of the boy kittens was a beautiful deep rich red striped tabby, the other four all came from the same mix - one boy was grey with white markings, the other was all white with paler ginger splodges here and there. The girls as you can see were 'refined' tortys meaning that they were paler versions of the accepted torty colouring - light grey and a very pale ginger known as 'pink'. So how did I end up with such 'refined' prizes?

Shortly after bringing the babies home here they are on my lap in September 1987 - note the gorgeous hair and full flowing galabea bought in Egypt - does Dr. Evadne Hinge remind you of anyone?

Monica was concerned that the girls were weaker than the boys and would need extra special care and in view of what their mother had been through (no she was not rehomed back to her previous owners) she wanted them to go somewhere where she knew they would be guaranteed that care. It took a while for it to sink in that she meant me - of course they were used to me, I had been one of their feeders! I have to admit I wasn't sure and for the life of me I cannot remember whether or not I consulted my first husband about an 'expanded' family at the time ..... Anyway, they came to me as 10-week olds looking more like 6-week olds, so tiny that when I made a bed for them in the newspaper rack if seemed far too large for them.

Well, talk about World War III - Nephyr moved out lock, stock and barrel into the garden except for feeding time and Taree refused to be in any room they were in. Only a long time later did I find out that 'queens' (female cats) don't really like sharing territory and Nephyr and Taree after seven years still did not have a 'peaceful' co-existence so the introduction of two more might not have been the best thing.

Taree started coming around to the idea of them after they had been neutered and once Nephyr came in for the winter and found herself a hidey-hole on the highest cupboard in the kitchen (she accessed it by leaping onto the three-quarter size fridge (about five feet) and then launching herself upward from there) an unsettled but more peaceful era began. Once I knew it was to be Nephyr's preferred permanent sleeping area I put a box and very comfy blankets for her own private use. Taree started to be tolerant of the kittens as long as they didn't get too close. And so we rumbled on for a few years all living together. (Nephyr did come out of the box bed after we converted the loft which she made her own domain).

Back to the naming and peculiarities of the Hilda and Evadne. The naming of Nephyr and Taree is on their own pages (or will be) and it was not as difficult as naming 'twins'. At the time, there weren't many famous female 'duo' personalities and the only ones that came to the forefront were 'Cagney and Lacey' and I wasn't madly keen on the aggressive pushy one or the moaning domestic goddess that they portrayed. There were lots of male 'duos' and male/female partnerships but something was sadly missing in terms of two 'ladies' who would make the grade.

It wasn't until after the kittens were neutered that I came up with 'Hinge and Bracket'. My reasoning was that as my Hilda and Evadne had been neutered (being a responsible owner of course they were) they were technically of an indeterminate gender. Similarly, Hinge and Bracket who were men dressed up as women were not exactly 'determined' either so it provided the perfect solution - our two little kittens were indeed named after those very 'Dear Ladies' with whom not only had I had the privilege of working but had also been present at their inaugural performance at the Royal Court Theatre's 'Theatre Upstairs'.

Interestingly enough, as they grew into their names, Hilda and Evadne also took on the characteristics and characters of those that they were named after. Hilda was already more colourful, so she was named after the more flamboyant Bracket and Evadne, sleeker and skinnier actually became more 'waspish' in her persona beautifully mirroring Hinge! Sometimes I think Evadne took her 'spitefulness' too far, she was the only female cat I ever knew that 'sprayed' when she was displeased - which was often it seems!

I hate to admit this, because she was the only one of our cats that ever won a 'highly commended' rosette in a photographic competition, but Hilda was quite an ugly kitten. Her features were all squashed and the black mark on her nose looked unsightly - luckily as she grew bigger her features smoothed themselves out and she became much softer and rounder and prettier in herself - just like Dame Hilda Bracket.

Watch this space - more images coming ...... more stories to come .......

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