My creative juices were stemmed in a spectacular fashion yesterday when there was a knock at the door which sent my 8st Bernese mountain dog into a frenzy.
I opened the door to find two scruffy looking kids holding a bundle between them.
They thrust it at me. ‘Wana by a couple of cats, Missus? Twenty quid.’
I wanted to say I’m a bit over subscribed for pets but suddenly there was a movement and a little black and white nose poked out.
‘I’ll give you a fiver,’ I replied.
Well I wasn’t brought up next to Watney Street Market for nothing.
‘Fifteen,’ the tallest oik replied.
‘Ten or you can find someone else,’ I counted.
I really should think about taking up poker, don’t you think?
They exchanged a look. ‘
‘Done,’ said the artful dodger.
Feeling I had been, I pulled out a crisp ten pound note and handed it over in exchange for a smelly bri-nylon shirt from Poland and two kittens.
I phoned the Hero-at-Hom,e who was on his way back to Woolmer Lodge.
‘Now don’t shout,’ I said.
This and the fact I never phone him raised his suspicions that I’d done something crazy.
‘What have you done?’ he asked in a controlled tone learnt over 34 years of happily married life.
I explained briefly finishing with, ‘but I haven’t named them.’
There followed a silence when I imagined he’d pulled over onto the hard shoulder of the M25 and was manfully sobbing onto his steering wheel.
Then he spoke. ‘We’re not keeping them.’
‘Of course not.’
‘No, I mean it,’ was his reply. I never was much of a liar.
‘I’ll ring around some of the cat sanctuaries shall I?’ I asked, innocently.
‘All of them,’ he said, and then rung off.
Well it was a close run thing but in the end I put wedded bliss first and rang around. First I tried Poorly Paws and spoke to a lovely lady called Deana who was very helpful but told me they were full but to ring back in a day or two. I then tried The Chestnut Cat Sanctuary at Epping whom I’d got my own cats from. They were also full but said to ring Jill, the owner and they might be able to help out after the week end.
So it seems- despite my best efforts- we are to have our little black and white guests for a little longer but it raises a serious point.
When we all trooped down from the ark cats and dogs didn’t ask to be our companions we made them so and have a responsibility to care for them properly.
Had I not taken the two little kittens in and the kids not been able to sell them what then? Would they have tossed over onto the railway tracks or into the canal?
There are animal charities struggling to deal with the huge numbers of abandoned and neglected animal and we should support neutering, rehoming and educational programmes so that perhaps one day living, feeling animals won’t be touted around the streets for a couple of quid.
BTW: I’d like you to help me choose a name but whatever you do don’t tell the Hero-at-Home look for the poll on the right.
