Sooty the One-Eyed Wonder Cat, I call him. That’s because everyone wonders why he’s only got one eye. Seriously, he wandered off one day in the late Spring of 2014 and came back three months later minus his left eye. Where he’d been and how he lost it is anyone’s guess. Anyway, he lives here with me and Ange at Blessham Hall now.

Truth be told he’s Becky’s cat actually (Becky is my step-daughter if you didn’t know) and she’s had him for nearly ten years. Well, apart from that ocular-organ-losing three month sojourn that he went on. He was originally intended to be ours though, mine and Ange’s. We’d lost our cat Pebbles in the June of 2012 and Ange felt like she wanted to fill the void he’d left behind. Also, we (somewhat misguidedly) thought that a kitten would be good for Pixie, Pebbles sister, who was still with us. How wrong we were on that one.

A friend of ours, Sue, rang one day to tell us that her daughters cat had had kittens and did we know anyone who might want one. Naturally we came over all warm and fuzzy at the thought of purring and cuddles and said that ‘Yes, we’ll take one. Thank you very much.’ And so off we went to Sue’s daughters with a large cardboard box (I think it had had bananas in it) lined with a fleece blanket to select our fluffy new addition to the family.

When we arrived we discovered that there were only two kittens left and we chose the one that seemed most lively and interested in us at the time. Sue’s daughter put him in the blanketed box and we trudged down the stairs again with our precious cargo. And then… and then I had a sudden wave of what I can only describe as abject mushiness and said to Ange, ‘We can’t separate them.’ And thus, the other kitten with the black, almost soot like, markings on his face joined his brother in the box and we set off for home again.

We were so excited to see what Pixie would make of her new step-brothers. Would she go into mother-mode and cosset the two little bundles of feline-hood or would she be a tad cautious perhaps and let them take time to get to know each other? The answer was neither.

Pixie threw a cat tantrum on an epic scale. She basically went on hunger strike, refused to even enter the boat we were living on at the time and kept sticking her head through the window to hiss and screech at the tiny newcomers like a woman scorned. ‘It’s no good,’ I said, ‘we’ll have to take them back.’ This of course made Erin, our granddaughter very sad and she begged Becky to let her and her mum keep them. Becky agreed and myself and Ange made a vow to help with the expense of raising two kittens – vet bills, food, toys etc etc.

And so the kittens were named Snowy and Sooty and went to live in the cottage with Becky and Erin and the rest, as they say, is history. And it was all sweetness and light with the exception of Sooty buggering off for a whole Summer and coming back half blind. It was agreed that Snowy was Erin’s cat and Sooty was Becky’s.

Fast forward to 2022. Becky and Erin are now living on a canal boat and are quite fond of moving around on it. And why wouldn’t you? That’s what boats are for after all. If they were meant to remain in one place they would be called Floating Bungalows. But boats they are and Becky in particular likes to cruise. Sooty, on the other hand, he don’t.

Every time that the boat moves he freaks out and disappears for days, sometimes weeks, on end. He never strayed very far and he was always located thanks to a combination of social media and human kindness. The trouble is of course, if your home is mobile then your pets have to be too and it seems like poor old Sooty just didn’t have the stomach for the waterways.

The solution! You’ve got it, he’s now come to live with us here at Blessham Hall. It’s win win win really, for all of us. Becky has got peace of mind knowing Sooty is safe, Ange and I are happy that we’ve got a little puddy tat running around the place again after we lost Pixie last year and Sooty, well, he has all the peace and quite he could wish for.

As with all our pets over the years he’ll be molly-coddled to within an inch of his life. He’ll eat the finest of foods, he’ll sleep wherever he damn well pleases and the whole world will grind to a halt when he starts meowing and we have to find out why. He’s basically going to live the life of Riley.

So welcome to Blessham Hall Sooty. You’ve already made yourself very comfortable so it just remains for me to say: please leave the squirrels alone.