November 2010
I suppose my favourite place of all would have to be my master's lap. I don't know why this should be, but nowhere else seems to give me the same sense of comfort and well-being. I have to say, though, that it wasn't always the case.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Billy (my mistress rather disrespectfully refers to me as Billy Bunter) and I'm 16, though you probably wouldn't guess it to look at me, if I say so myself.
Anyway, as I was saying, when my master first chose me at the Cattery, we didn't really hit it off to start off with. He'd recently lost his previous cat, some black long-hair, whose picture was still on his mantelpiece and I felt he still missed him and was only taking me on because he felt he ought to still have a pet, with him living on his own. Do you know he even tried to fob me off with his old cat's food, ie. tins of Whiskas! I showed him I wasn't having any of that rubbish. I heard him phoning the Cattery in desperation asking what I really liked to eat. Ever since then he's fed me on Felix jelly sachets, with other treats in-between, of course. I like to keep him on his toes by refusing to eat every now and then, forcing him to vary my diet.
But I digress. My first human home was with a lovely man who called me Tigger and everyone who came said what a handsome tabby kitten I was. Sadly his house was re-possessed by the Mortgage Company and he had to move into a flat, so it was goodbye Tigger!
Perhaps it was the shock of losing my home too and then being imprisoned in a cage in the Cattery that left me in a state of shock. I suppose that's why my new master found me rather withdrawn and aloof. It didn't help that for a week he kept me indoors for some unknown reason, probably on the advice of the Cattery people. I was practically going insane, I can tell you! I suppose it's what you humans call, 'the call of the wild.'
Mind you, I've always loved human company and after a while I began to feel that, since I was after all here to stay, I'd have to make the best of things. But how was I to break down the invisible barrier that had formed between me and my new master?
Then I had a brainwave. The next time he walked down to the seafront I followed him. That would show him that I was growing fond of him. I think it ultimately worked too, but unfortunately, the first time I was so involved in following him that I didn't bother to notice where I was going and when I eventually let him go on his way, I found I didn't know where I was! I'd become completely disorientated and had to wait for him to come back from his walk!
It was then that I decided that I would do him the additional honour of sitting on his lap, to show him I'd totally accepted him now. And, if he had other people round, although I tried other laps, I always made a point of ending up on his. It denotes ownership (ownership of him) and in any case, over the years he instinctively seems to know how to sit to give me maximum comfort - very important, you know.
Last year out of the blue, without a word to me, my master got married and so after fourteen years with him I was expected to uproot myself from, in effect, my lifelong home (I can't remember my first home much, naturally) and move somewhere else.
Anyway, all in all I think I've managed the transition fairly smoothly, all things considered and I think I've shown his new wife that I've completely accepted her. Sometimes I even do her the honour of sitting on her lap in preference to his. However, when it comes down to it, despite all the other places I have to rest and sleep, the best place of all is on my master's lap, where I just feel totally at peace and warm and loved.