This is the story of my beautiful Mouse.

Mouse's mum went into labour at 7:00AM on 3rd December, 1996. She gave birth to a little daughter with her "calico" colouring, and a short while, she gave birth to her second kitten, black with a white tummy, tux and socks. She immediately started giving birth to her third kitten and didn't have time to clean up the second one, so I did it for her, gently wiping the mucus from the little kitten's face. At first I thought this one was dead, then I heard a faint, almost far-away, "squeak" - and the little black and white body stirred in my hand. This was Mouse's beginning - the faint squeak is what gave her her name. Her grey and white sister was born, followed quite quickly by another calico sister, and then almost an hour after the fourth little girl, came the one and only ginger boy.

We found homes for all the kittens except for Mouse, so we decided to keep her. She was the funniest little kitten - she had then, and still has a constant surprised look on her little black face - and she has a passion for carrying around plastic shopping bags, and getting into anything she can, literally - I have photos of her sitting in boxes, bags, suitcases, the dog's bed, washing baskets, and one of the funniest was when she got into my wastepaper basket, which is quite small. She is a big cat now, and when she got in, she couldn't get out. I had to pull quite hard to get her out, much to her disgust. When we finally got her free, she sat with her back to us, and began to groom herself with an air of "I meant for that to happen"!

Then she decided to be a jockey - I believe that if I had a video camera, I would have won first prize at the Funniest Home Video for this one - the dog is actually smaller than Mouse, and being a Jack Russell, very excitable. One day, when we were all outside, he went crazy, tearing around the yard in circles, then he ran straight for Mouse, she saw him coming, "stood up" on her hind legs, and he ran under her, and off down the driveway they went, Brutus the "horse" and Mouse, hanging on for dear life, the "jockey" - I have never seen anything so funny in my life. When they reached the gate, the dog stopped, and Mouse jumped over the gate into the front yard - once again with the regal air of "I meant for that to happen". (Brutus was hilarious - he couldn't work out where Mouse had gone, and was running around looking for her with the most puzzled look on his face - like "I know that cat was on my back, but where on earth did she go?")

She has done many other things over the past five years, but the sweetest things are when I have been ill - each time I was taken to hospital, she was there with a concerned look on her face and a questioning "Mew?" as if to say "Are you okay Mummy?" - then each time I returned and was confined to bed for weeks, she was my constant companion, leaving my bed only for meals, toilet and when the nurse came to change my dressings. Her purring soothed me when the pain was bad, and lulled me to sleep when it eased. Her little soft body cuddled against mine even now, soothes and comforts me. Her manner is so gentle, she is so "good" (she has never been rough like some kittens (e.g. her mum Mowie), she is quiet, her meow is still a faint squeak. I sometimes call her Sister Mary Mouse (no offence to any nuns) because she is so loving and kind. Mouse is my kid now that my real kids are grown up, and I love her dearly. She has even wormed her way into the hardened heart of my husband who is not a cat lover, though he would never be cruel to one. Even tonight he said he thought Mouse was prettier than our son's two grey pussies (although I adore them too, Mouse IS my favourite).

Unfortunately my beautiful Mowie has gone, I think she was bitten by a snake - but she lives on in Mouse, and I believe that if anything happens to Mouse, it will be quite a while before I could love another kitten quite as much.

Copyright © Ellen Kearney-Ladgrove
September 6, 2002

Read Ellen's other stories: The Thing & Buddy and Sue