Pudding / Nephyr / Taree / Tigger / Mac & Mabel / Hinge & Bracket / Taritu / Tinkerbell

Pudding 1978 - ? - His Story

Pudding - the first male of two in this 'sisterhood' of female felines making him a rarity from the off! I can write about his origins as he was my cat before deciding to decamp and live with my sister. I was working at Derby Playhouse at the time and our designer, Sue, loved her beautiful long-haired torty cat so much that they went together everywhere. Eventually they ended up in Derby and in a commune which consisted of three couples - myself and my first husband, Sue and her boyfriend and Mick and his girlfriend. One Christmas Sue went to visit her family in Scotland and this time left her cat behind in the care of the other incumbents of the house and Martin, the young apprentice. We came back just before the new season started on or around 2nd January 1978 and it was fairly apparent that Sue's cat had not been cared for as well as she could have been, but we soon put that right. Unfortunately as a result of that partial neglect, a litter of 5 kittens appeared after the appropriate gestation period! Five little ones all either all black or black with white markings. I'm not sure what made Pudding so endearing, but he certainly had a character although his 'cattitude' was quite late in emerging! To cut a long story short, after a few months we found that we should have to leave Derby to seek employment elsewhere and that elsewhere was Pitlochry. Because the journey would have been long and arduous for a human let alone a cat, Pudding was installed temporarily at my sisters home. It was also really my home and I would be returning there after Pitlochry and stay there until we had found a marital home into which we would all move together. Pudding had other ideas - he decided he liked having three devoted slaves he could bully rather than two part-time ones and so he stayed.

I think I must have known that this would be the case when I got home one night and noticed that he was following my sister around like a lovesick puppy, that is actually unusual behaviour for a cat. It got funnier as the evening progressed and when a glass was broken, all pandemonium broke out to ensure the kitten didn't get any glass into his paws! The kitten wasn't bothered, he trotted after my sister when she went to get a dustpan and brush and trotted after her when she returned. As she got onto her knees to do the sweeping up, Pudding took one look at her and proceeded to slide down on his front paws and raised his rump. Then his right paw did a perfect imitation of my sister's sweeping motion - it was the funniest thing I had ever seen, funnier even than Danny Kaye!

Watch this space - images coming .....

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