Introducing Charlie

A long, long time ago, when I was first married and we moved into a tiny terraced house as our first married home, it was just about perfect . . .

Just about, because as far as I was concerned, there was one thing that was needed to make that home perfect - and that was a cat. I've always agreed with Pam Brown who said: One small cat changes coming home to an empty house, to coming home.

We had a house but we didn't have one small cat . Then one day I was walking past a pet shop when a small ginger kitten came up to the window and waved a paw at me. I was sold - and so was he! I brought him back to the house - and he turned it into a home. We named him Rumpuss because he made a lot of noise. The Babe Magnet wanted to add some of the names of his favourite people at the time so he became Alexander JB Hopkins Rumpuscat. Most people couldn't get their head round Rumpuss. Our elderly neighbour always called him Rufus, but he was polite - he'd answer to anything . He shared our lives for many years - nearly 19 of them. He was there when I had my first book accepted, then published.

When he died, we missed ginger fur so much we had to find another ginger kitten - it wasn't easy. But eventually we found a tiny red and white boy who still had big blue eyes so we named him Robert Redford - though to all his real friends he was just Bob.

Long time blog readers will know that Bob had a stroke and we lost him 3 years ago., As a result of that, I was thrilled to have Flora as a very special Christmas present. A gorgeous, flighty, fun Christmas present.

But I still missed red and white fur around the house. And because of Flora I'd fallen in love with the wonderful cats that Maine Coons are. So when I discovered a lady who lived locally, bred Maine Coons - and had some red cats, I watched her web site just in case. . .

And one day I found this little person on her 'Kittens available ' page.

Now who could resist those baby blue eyes? And even more - how could I resist when I saw that his litter name was Rumpuss! So we went to see him to decide if we liked him - but really there was no decision to be made. He walked right into our hearts and we fell in love all over again. We named him Charlie - but we had to keep that special name as well so he's Charlie Rumpuss now.

He's officially my Christmas present but Christmas has come early this year and yesterday we went to collect him and bring him home. He's crashed out on the settee right now, exhausted after a busy day charging around the house (he loves stairs), chewing his catnip mouse, dashing from one end of his play tunnel to the other - and chewing my toes as I sit at the desk. Last night he came up on to the bed with us. I thought he might be lonely after leaving behind his two brother and sister - but every time I woke up all I heard was loud, continual purring - and he's rarely stopped purring all day.

He has met everyone else in the cat family. Dylan, being a grandfather sort of cat has the attitude of ‘kittens – see it all before’ and he just sleeps through all the fuss. Flora hissed a bit but was intrigued by the fact that he was playing with a ball and purring and she’s keeping an eye on things. It's obvious she really wants to join in but right now she's pretending to hold on to her dignity and holding back for a while. Sid warned him to know his place - but then Charlie was trying to snaffle some of the big guy’s meat at the time! But Charlie's mixed with bigger cats that Sid (I know I've seen them) and he's not cowed - just keeping a respectful distance . . . though Sid's tail is an awafulk temptation . . . (Flora's is a worse one - I think that's going to get pounced on before very long.)

He's just 13 weeks old so he's lost those baby blue eyes and now he looks more like this. He has explored every inch of the house, staked his claim to a seat on the sofa, and knows where all the important places are - food bowl, water bowl, litter tray, food bowl . . . He's also well aware of what the sound of a door opening means and he's furious that Flora and Sid get to go outside while he has to stay indoors. He can just see the garden out there and wants to go and investigate.

I'll have some new pics of him in his forever home as soon as I can upload them - right now he's usually movng too fast for a photo opportunity. But I'll try.

So that's the new member of the family - and I'm sure you'll be hearing lots more about him in the months to come.

My special thanks to Kay and Neil for such a lovely calm, confident kitten - a tribute to the way they care for their babies a

nd socialising them so wonderfully. Believe me, I was tempted by every single one of the kittens they had but Charlie Rumpuss is really rather special.

He has a long heritage of wonderful red and white cats to live up to but I feel he's well up to the task.

And if you're wondering how big he might grow - here's a photo of his Dad McKenzie to show you where the next couple of years might take him. He has big paws and strong bones, so I suspect he will match his father . . . . watch this space.