The screeching of car brakes, a door slamming shut and the sound of a motor car racing away was all I needed to rush down to the lane to see what was going on. When I saw the small, wicker basket lying on its side, the lid tightly closed, I feared the worst. I wasn’t wrong! Inside, were the most beautiful fluffy white bundles I had ever seen. Two tiny heads, four bright blue eyes, stared up at me. Outrage boiled out of me at such deliberate cruelty.
That was the day Willie the Spot and Tom Tom came into my life and who, for the years they were with me, brought me so much pleasure.
Tom Tom was the curious one of the two, so I called him the investigator. It was he who could never resist investigating behind an open door or clambering into cupboards, drawers and even suitcases. He was an investigator ‘par excellence’, teaching himself many strange, un-cat-like activities. One of his favourite occupations was to leap up and cling on to a door handle! Of course, he could never actually open the door, but he did his best, clinging on to it with all his strength until he finally dropped to the floor exhausted.
It was by chance that I discovered another of his accomplishments.! It seemed that whenever I left the kitchen for a moment or two whilst preparing the breakfast, I would return to find the toaster empty and a slice of toast lying on the floor. It was always a complete mystery until one morning I caught the culprit! There was Tom Tom leaping up on to the work surface. With great dexterity he prised the toast out of the toaster before jumping back to the ground, dropping the toast as he did so. Needless to say, from then on, for hygiene reasons, Tom Tom was barred from the kitchen!
Very sadly, Tom Tom disappeared when he was four years old. Maybe curiosity finally did get the better of him, we shall never know, but it is in his memory I have given the name Tom Tom to one of the characters in my book.
Next time, I’ll tell you about his brother Willie the Spot, so please come back …