Strange Little Girl
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 7:21 pm
'One day see a strange little girl look at you,
One day see a strange little girl feeling blue.'
The Stranglers' track was originally Emily's song, but got given to Molly, who nearly four (or is it five) years ago screamed the street down early one morning. Just settling back for a lie-in and I heard these terrible cries and went out, just as I was, in a horribly embarrassing secondhand pair of pink and white checked jimjam bottoms, to see a ginger kitten crouched on a doorstep. 'What are you doing there?' The strange little girl looked at me and, meekly, let me pick her up. She was wet and cold and miserable. I knocked on the door but no answer; I didn't know these people or even if she was theirs, so all I could think of to do was to bring her into my house and put up a 'found cat' notice in my window.
She settled in quite happily, ate a pouch of Felix, played with the fish tank a bit and then put herself to bed in the kitchen away from my other cats, Finn, Emily and Mouse.
The notice attracted a call from a knowall neighbour who claimed the kitten came from the house where I'd found her and who just wanted, basically, to badmouth the people concerned, saying they were ALWAYS chucking the kitten out to howl...first time I'd heard her. So took it all with a pinch of salt. They were her owners though; that evening they sent the eldest child round for her. When she saw the child, she growled. But my old tomcat Finn (sadly no longer with us) was sitting nearby so the growl might have been directed at him. I quite liked this child though she was cheeky, and I liked the family too; they were a bit rough and ready but much friendlier than some of my stuffier neighbours. A short while later it was, can you take her? They couldn't cope with her; she was aggressive with the children and their other cats. At first I said 'no' but then hearing her screaming late one night I went out and found her on the doorstep again, knocked on the door and said, do you still want to let her go? It was Dad who answered, and he did, even gave me a pack of Butchers and sounded very glad to be rid of her.
I'd already decided to call her Molly - don't know why; the name just came. She WAS aggressive. If anyone's read 'Ring of Bright Water' and Gavin Maxwell's account of the 'meek and fluffy' Scottish wildcat who turned into a MONSTER, this was Molly. She was meek and quiet at first - but then she showed her true colours - WOW. Emily and Mouse detested her but Finn loved her.
She hasn't changed. She does need careful handling - stroke the wrong ear and she'll have you. Last night I was talking to her as she lounged on top of Shahi-python's vivarium, and I stroked the wrong ear and got WALLOPED. The gore gushed. When this happens you just have to get out a kleenex and remonstrate gently with the cat. 'Huh,' said Molly, 'your ancient veins! And why haven't you got fur to deflect the blow?' And in the meantime, Mouse, my gentle black tux, was rolling about on her chair by the radiator, wanting affection...Moll watched us, jealously. I turned to tell her that she was a GOOD girl and I loved her, even if she didn't always want to be stroked, I understood.
Over the years relations with Emily and Mouse have got better; they've put her in her place, but last night she came up on the bed and purred (little motor going!) and wanted stroking, and watched Mouse jealously today when she came for a love...
Poor little mixed up kid, poor strange little girl.
Back to the subject of songs attaching themselves to cats, Emily's other song is, of course -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWrdwP1YH0
'And when I woke and felt you warm and near,
I kissed your honey hair with my grateful tears...'
And Tess, who was Mouse's mother, a dark tortie tux, has for her song another Stranglers' track - 'Golden Brown' - 'never a frown with Golden Brown' ...one of the sweetest cats I've ever known, lost her to a RTA almost 10 years ago, never forgotten, my Tessy Tiger.
I used to sing a folk song to Finn, the 'Sandgate Lullaby' (mangled by Cilla Black as 'Liverpool Lullaby - ugh.) 'Hold thy wail. me bonny bairn'. He KNEW that tune, but it had to be 'hold thy TAIL' - well of course.
Mouse hasn't got a tune, unless it's -
'Mousey nose and Mousey toes and little dozy Mousey.
And Finn and the Emily too, wouldn't you?'
Ooops yes I know. Embarrassing!
Maybe I should close here - this isn't so much a thread as a blog lol
But they are fascinating, all their characters, all their moods, have to love them!
One day see a strange little girl feeling blue.'
The Stranglers' track was originally Emily's song, but got given to Molly, who nearly four (or is it five) years ago screamed the street down early one morning. Just settling back for a lie-in and I heard these terrible cries and went out, just as I was, in a horribly embarrassing secondhand pair of pink and white checked jimjam bottoms, to see a ginger kitten crouched on a doorstep. 'What are you doing there?' The strange little girl looked at me and, meekly, let me pick her up. She was wet and cold and miserable. I knocked on the door but no answer; I didn't know these people or even if she was theirs, so all I could think of to do was to bring her into my house and put up a 'found cat' notice in my window.
She settled in quite happily, ate a pouch of Felix, played with the fish tank a bit and then put herself to bed in the kitchen away from my other cats, Finn, Emily and Mouse.
The notice attracted a call from a knowall neighbour who claimed the kitten came from the house where I'd found her and who just wanted, basically, to badmouth the people concerned, saying they were ALWAYS chucking the kitten out to howl...first time I'd heard her. So took it all with a pinch of salt. They were her owners though; that evening they sent the eldest child round for her. When she saw the child, she growled. But my old tomcat Finn (sadly no longer with us) was sitting nearby so the growl might have been directed at him. I quite liked this child though she was cheeky, and I liked the family too; they were a bit rough and ready but much friendlier than some of my stuffier neighbours. A short while later it was, can you take her? They couldn't cope with her; she was aggressive with the children and their other cats. At first I said 'no' but then hearing her screaming late one night I went out and found her on the doorstep again, knocked on the door and said, do you still want to let her go? It was Dad who answered, and he did, even gave me a pack of Butchers and sounded very glad to be rid of her.
I'd already decided to call her Molly - don't know why; the name just came. She WAS aggressive. If anyone's read 'Ring of Bright Water' and Gavin Maxwell's account of the 'meek and fluffy' Scottish wildcat who turned into a MONSTER, this was Molly. She was meek and quiet at first - but then she showed her true colours - WOW. Emily and Mouse detested her but Finn loved her.
She hasn't changed. She does need careful handling - stroke the wrong ear and she'll have you. Last night I was talking to her as she lounged on top of Shahi-python's vivarium, and I stroked the wrong ear and got WALLOPED. The gore gushed. When this happens you just have to get out a kleenex and remonstrate gently with the cat. 'Huh,' said Molly, 'your ancient veins! And why haven't you got fur to deflect the blow?' And in the meantime, Mouse, my gentle black tux, was rolling about on her chair by the radiator, wanting affection...Moll watched us, jealously. I turned to tell her that she was a GOOD girl and I loved her, even if she didn't always want to be stroked, I understood.
Over the years relations with Emily and Mouse have got better; they've put her in her place, but last night she came up on the bed and purred (little motor going!) and wanted stroking, and watched Mouse jealously today when she came for a love...
Poor little mixed up kid, poor strange little girl.
Back to the subject of songs attaching themselves to cats, Emily's other song is, of course -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWrdwP1YH0
'And when I woke and felt you warm and near,
I kissed your honey hair with my grateful tears...'
And Tess, who was Mouse's mother, a dark tortie tux, has for her song another Stranglers' track - 'Golden Brown' - 'never a frown with Golden Brown' ...one of the sweetest cats I've ever known, lost her to a RTA almost 10 years ago, never forgotten, my Tessy Tiger.
I used to sing a folk song to Finn, the 'Sandgate Lullaby' (mangled by Cilla Black as 'Liverpool Lullaby - ugh.) 'Hold thy wail. me bonny bairn'. He KNEW that tune, but it had to be 'hold thy TAIL' - well of course.
Mouse hasn't got a tune, unless it's -
'Mousey nose and Mousey toes and little dozy Mousey.
And Finn and the Emily too, wouldn't you?'
Ooops yes I know. Embarrassing!
Maybe I should close here - this isn't so much a thread as a blog lol
But they are fascinating, all their characters, all their moods, have to love them!