Furry Friends ...

So, I was giving some thought to the things that enrich our lives.  Obviously family, friends, quality free time to indulge in what gives you pleasure, holidays etc. all feature fairly highly.  But also, many of us have pets.  I'm not lucky enough to be owned by any currently, but they have played a major part in my life in the past.  When I first moved in with my now-hubby over 20 years ago, we weren't allowed cats or dogs in our flat.  So we had mice - named Cobweb and Swift after characters from my favourite novels - and hamsters, Bilbo and Punk.  (Punk was the coolest hamster you ever saw - he really did have a streaky mohican.)

Sadly, I don't have any photos of our lovely rodents.  And the photos of our first cats, Sherbet and Cornflake, are all pre-digital, so I've had to scan them.

(Cornflake and Sherbet, probably the only time they ever sat together.

  Check out the tasteful cushion and chair ... )

They were an absolute menace, those two - especially Sherbet.  We had to remove all our ornaments, but still between them they managed to wreck the curtains, the wallpaper, the sofa, the carpet, two lamps, a table, a plant pot and a hatstand.  Yes, really - we found Sherbet in the wreckage of the hatstand after an almighty crash in the middle of the night.  When we first got them, they were so tiny they used to sit on hubby's feet looking up at him (this was usually a prelude to shinning up his body with claws like needles, but it looked cute!).

(Cornflake, who liked nothing better than to roll in as much dust as she could find, then come in the house and shake it all over you.)

After Sherbet and Cornflake came Socks, then Blue.  Socks had the most amazing quack, and you could hold a whole conversation with him.  He loved to sit on anything that clearly had anti-Socks warnings on it - most noticeably a whole tray of marzipan fruits which had taken yours truly five hours to make for presents one Christmas.  He was not popular that evening ... He was arrogant and affectionate, and most definitely a character.

(Socks, who knew he was a king.)

And Blue was a very different character.  Terrified of most things, and probably the most unphotogenic cat in the world, she absolutely loved hubby and used to tear across the room to meet him every single day.  She was a solid lump of a cat (probably due to the fact that she never ventured further than the garden, where she could often be seen, hunched over in the pouring rain - definitely a cat after my own heart!).  One of the funniest things I ever saw was the day one of the other cats knocked her into the tiny pond and she tore around the house in a panic, spraying foul-smelling pond water everywhere. ;)

(Blue, who did love her daddy ... )

Anyway, now I've rambled about our pets, I want you to tell me about yours.  We're a nation of animal lovers, and I know many of you share your lives with a furry/feathered/scaled friend or several.  Ours gave us much joy, amusement and sincere heartbreak, and the fact that they were 'only' pets does not diminish the way we felt about them.  I'm hoping this will be the year we find ourselves owned by another one.  If not a dog, most definitely a cat.  I miss my moggies!