Cats and Their Tales

By Julia Field

This book comprises a collection of amusing and whimsical short stories about cats which the author has owned and come into contact with. It will appeal to all cat lovers, who will find it interesting and uplifting. The author attempts to delight readers with the antics and adventures of the cats who each have their own distinct personalities.

Cats have played a significant role in the life of the author. The cats she has owned, and come into contact with, have encouraged her to write about them and the parts they have played in her life. Her observation of cats has spanned many years. She hopes that other cat lovers will appreciate her stories and enjoy the amusing antics which she has witnessed.

The lives of the cats feature alongside the author’s own life which is briefly touched upon. The author’s love of cats and empathy for them shine through the book, which will bring joy to all readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528988186

Julia Field

As well as being a lover of cats, the author is a practising astrologer and she has included some ‘tongue in cheek’ references to astrology and how it affects the lives of cats. She comments that “even cats have star signs and are affected by the planets”. She has written various articles on astrology and done personal readings for clients. The author also has an interest in mind, body and spirit teachings, and spiritual healing which has been important to her at various times of her life.

Book preview

Godstone

Benny and TC

I can still remember the cats I had when I was younger and living with my parents. Fortunately for me, my husband liked cats too. Our first two cats were black-and-white (or more white-and-black) and ginger-and-white. My mother-in-law knew someone who had kittens, so we went along to see them.

Although the kittens were quite tiny, they were darting around the owner’s garden, and they seemed quite confident. We fell in love with them straight away, and called them Benny and TC, after the cats in the cartoon series Top Cat. They loved to play together, and had the run of the house.

They were, of course, quite different in personality. Benny, the white-and-black cat, was outgoing and affectionate. He would always run upstairs to look for me, whilst TC was more aloof. The name TC soon fell by the wayside, as we could not stop calling him Ginger or Ginny.

We used to shut the kittens in the kitchen at night, but they always managed to get out. We had a folding door in the kitchen, and they discovered that if you leant on it a couple of times, it would fold up, so that there was enough room to squeeze out.

We even left a chair propped up against the door to prevent them from getting out. But they soon worked out how to squeeze past the chair, and those tiny little feet would quickly make their way up the stairs, into our bedroom again.

The kittens enjoyed going in the garden when they were big enough. They had a very unusual habit of looking for earthworms, bringing them back and playing with them, while they were dangling from their mouths. It was something I had never seen before.

After we had been in our house for a few years, my husband decided to install an alarm system. This involved going under the floorboards, to lay the cables. The first thing my husband did was to get Benny to go under the floorboards to see if there were any nasty surprises there, such as spiders, mice or rats. But Benny did not need any coaxing. He could not wait to go down and have a look around.

After a while, we forgot that Benny was under the floorboards, and he suddenly popped up through the gap in the floor, and gave us the fright of our lives. It was like something out of the film, The Alien.

Benny had some strange tastes in food. If I was peeling potatoes, he would sit by the side of the sink, scoop out the potato peelings, and sit there munching them. He was very fond of crisps and peas too.

As far as playing was concerned, he loved jumping into cardboard boxes. If I was unwrapping something in a box, he would jump inside it straight away. For some reason, I always felt closer to Benny than TC.

TC loved to sleep in our bathroom sink. His ginger fur looked good against the pink sink. I think TC was my husband’s favourite. My husband used to pick him up, and drape him round the back of his neck. TC was so chilled out. Unfortunately, I do not remember much more about TC as we had him for such a short time.

We lived on a fairly busy road, and after about a year, a neighbour knocked on the door, and said that TC had been run over. I still remember it to this day. As my neighbour told me the news, my body lurched