Cats have left home, we are next.

Well, part of our preparations for the voyage has been completed and one of the most difficult problems was to find homes for the cats. We have (had) two cats.

One is a Siamese, who we found as a kitten with his dead mother, who we raised from infancy and who has been a large part of our domestic life.

He has now been adopted by a family from Paris.

Now he is in a home being cuddled by two lovely young French girls, which is a very good outcome for a de-testicled tom cat.

That anyone should be so lucky!

 

Our other cat Tequila has been adopted by our good friends Roberto and Chantelle from the Alsace who have known her for many years. She is similar to what the French call a Chartreux which is a grey cat reputed to be much favoured by Monks, due to their affectionate nature and excellent mouse catching abilities. She lived up to this reputation with us as she operated three “mouse ranches” in front of the house along the river, where she controlled the breeding of the mice for her kittens.

She is an expert at selecting mice of different sizes for her kittens so that they learn the skills required to be a “mouser”.

What we did not know was that Chartreux cats have names starting with a particular letter of the alphabet to distinguish the year of their birth. So Tequilla is officially either eleven or thirty three years old, or somewhere in-between.

A real French cat would never reveal true her age.

And nor would we.

 

She also has the uncanny habit of staring deep into your eyes as though she can understand what you are thinking. I think she knew she was leaving us, but that it was alright, whereas Frank had no idea.

The house is strangely empty without them.