Texture tale

Long, long time ago, on the first day of January, snow began to fall in the Highlands of Scotland, carpeting the shore of the house by the sea-loch All was silent, still, until the cat flap was heard to rattle, and in came a small black cat, its fur spangled with snowstars.

"Let us give it some milk!" cried the children, and the mother, who preferred dogs, had not the heart to refuse comfort to the small visitor. The visitor stayed, and the children were delighted, for they believed she would bring them luck. In return for food, she kept the house free of mice, and lived only in the warm kitchen.

In April, she, whom they named Gobbolino, gave birth to three kittens, two black and one white; and in August, five more. But she was an inexperienced mother, and the children's own mother believed that she was trying to dispose of her kittens, by placing them in deliberate danger. In time, she left, and the first litter of kittens was rehomed; and two out of the five of the second litter were kept as family pets.

One was smooth, sleek, and black as midnight: an elegant feline named Ra. His sister was a long haired black beast, believed to be slightly scatterbrained. She was known as Gobstopper , or Fluffybum, and was rarely combed by the children's mother, who appreciated the cats for their mousing ability, but not for the gifts of entrails they left scattered around the kitchen, day after day. She did not feel that the black cats, or their mother, had brought her any luck at all.

Those two cats lived on in the house by the loch, for nearly twenty years, until all the children had left home, and cousins had come to live there, in their stead. The day the second cat, Fluffybum, was buried, the mother swore she would have no more cats. Thus it is that, to this day, her house is plagued by field mice, shrews, and small creatures, who fight on the wooden staircase; rustle behind the wainscot; and climb the hangers in her wardrobe to nibble at the shoulders of her best costumes. No amount of sonic repellent devices, nor green grains of poison, will deter them from gnawing through the very fabric of her house. But she has made her bed, and the mice will destroy its very sheets and blankets.

Ten years after the death of Gobstopper-Fluffybum, a black cat named Bovril came to live at the home of the second daughter, who had relocated to South-West England. A rescue cat, originally feral, who had been thrown out of several would-be-homes for boisterous behaviour and fighting, he soon made himself a home in the hearts of the daughter and her partner. They renamed him Bomble, for it suited his playful character, and both favoured Marmite over Bovril. With his smooth velvet coat, and stunning red-brown highlights, he combines the elegance, good looks, spirit and companionship of both Gobstopper-Fluffybum and Ra.