Pepper

normal marble Bengal

27 July 1999 - 19 August 2008

I picked Pepper from the litter the day she was born, and she came to live with us 12 weeks later. I remember Pete coming home from work, and finding this charming litle stripy kitten sitting in the hall, just as though she were waiting for him.

She was well named - a permanent kitten, and a tomboy to boot, she charmed everyone who met her, despite her somewhat strident tendencies from time to time. She did vexed as a career; try to imagine, if you can, a charming, stripy, feline fishwife - one hand on her hip, and the other wagging a finger at you, all the while nattering in a shrewish manner; she even did this while eating sometimes, which was a tad impolite. She had a piercing voice (and claws, come to that), and was for a long time called Mew, and which eventially became Moo.

Moo had a particular fondness for sleeping on Pete’s legs in the cooler weather, and stayed there all night no matter how much he moved about, so we called her the Klingon. Another of her charming traits was to sit on the shelf by the front door, and moo to be let out. And when you let her out and shut the door, you could generally start a countdown from 10 to when she’d moo to be let back in again.

She also had a fondness for what we called “special fud” - Whiskas pouches, served in her special bowl (I’ve had to put it away for now). Curiously, the rest of the Tribe would allow her to have her fill of this; they always stood back to let her eat her fill, rather than push and shove in their normal rather rude manner.

Moo and Mustrum sustained a rather abusive relationship; she absolutely adored him, and would allow him to treat her very badly, forgetting as he did that he had in fact been neutered, and wasn’t supposed to want to mount her. She would bill and coo at him just like a lovelorn teenager, and say “Please love me, Mustrum”.

She was a most wonderful cat - a wild little girl who is, as I write, officially the prettiest cat in the world, according to Google. Which is entirely right and proper.

She was killed by a car on 19th August 2008, just 10 days before her 9th birthday.

Good hunting, Moo - we will miss you more than I can say.