Every cat that has ever employed me has been a madcap character.
I’ve saved adult ducks and rabbits (and the neighbour’s kid’s soft toys)
from the jaws of expert hunters, climbed a rickety fire escape to rescue a
deaf, cross-eyed tom who scarred me for life in the process, and
collected another (the Devil’s own spawn) from the Yorkshire Bank after
she strolled into town for an adventure. I have been woken from deep
sleep by cat claws scratching my eyelids, and I have a story about a
removal van, cat poo and motorway service station toilets that I’d prefer
not to go into here! Not to mention all that down-holstered furniture
over the years.
The sweetest cat I ever worked for appeared at the door as a tiny stray
kitten, and not long afterwards she hid in the washing machine and got put
on a 40° wash – but luckily she was spotted after only a few
minutes! Duzzy went on to get trapped in a wheelie bin for hours, delete
a chapter of a book I was writing, destroy a sofa and write off my
MacBook by knocking a full glass of red wine over it. Despite all this, she
had the most loving and loyal nature of any cat ever, and her sweetness
helped me through some of the hardest times in my life. She was also the
quietest cat ever, and she hardly ever meowed. But if she saw you crying
she would look up at you and squeak.
I’m not employed by a cat at the moment, but I freelance for several. I’ve
been feeding a few semi-strays for over twenty years. The photograph is
one of these, a cat we call Elsie – a name which comes from ‘LC’, which
is short for Little Cat. The other current incumbents are Roly, Numpty,
Bumpty and Bear.
Amanda Huggins is the award-winning author of the novellas Crossing the Lines
and All Our Squandered Beauty – both of which won the Saboteur Award for
Best Novella – as well as five collections of short fiction and poetry.
