Tortoiseshell and white (calico) neutered female.
Rescued: 08 August 1981 from Blue Cross; probably 5-6 months old.
Died: 03 March 1993
Although officially called “Bubbles”, she rapidly earned herself the nickname “Pickle”: into everything, very human orientated and demanding affection.
If the food came off your plate, she’d eat it almost whatever it was: toast & jam, naan bread but best of all chicken! And if there was a spare chicken carcass in the kitchen she was there with a paw on the worktop wanting to help with the remains, or she was to be found growling over the odd lamb bone!
Sweet and demure at one moment Pickle also had that slightly uncertain tortoiseshell temperament (once characterised by our vet as “Rat Bag”), which made her a magnificent hunter who was known to catch rats, frogs and slow-worms as well as the standard fare of mice and birds.
Pickle was a solid cat too, for a female, which makes us suspect she may have had some Burmese ancestry.
Her ashes are laid in one of her favourite lookout spots: under the apple tree!
I wrote the following memorial …
Pickle – RIP
03 March 1993
We gave you 10 good pickling years
– August 1981 to September 1991 –
having rescued you from Blue Cross
at the eleventh hour.
And then the vet, Stephie,
gave you another good pickling 18 months
– September 1991 to today.
Rest in peace
with our fond love and memories
and we’ll meet again one day.
With all our love,
K & N
© Copyright Keith Marshall, 1993.
And then Noreen wrote …
A Little Cat of Many Names
‘Bubbles’ they said, when we collected her
(or rather, she collected us: “Oh goody,
a meal ticket, I’ll come!”) from Blue Cross …
Not really.
So she became The Little Cat, or
Little One, or
That Small Cat,
Catkin, Katisha,
or even just Small.
Something by way of a title seemed called for, so:
Princess Emily Marina Champagne Pusskat
– take the change out of that!
And Fa Ying (Celestial Princess) – she rather liked that,
though she always did come to Puss, Puss, Puss!
especially when it was accompanied by
A Little Something to Eat.
Demure names suited her: Prudence Kitten, Maude,
Fanny, Fanny Pickle, Francesca, and even Mistress Frances,
though her green eyes prompted Esmeralda too.
Later in life she became more international: Pushkin,
Le P’tit Poussin, Piccolina, Baboushka,
and we realised that she was both Miss Cute and Baba Yaga
– often at the same time.
Louise, or rather La Wheeze, because she did, rather
(one of her many Burmese-ish traits,
along with the neat round feet
and a habit of looking small while seeming to weigh ten tons
– Little Heavy Paws always did make audible entrances!)
But honestly, was there ever such a pickling little cat?
So it was to Pickle that we finally said goodbye,
with much love and many fond memories.
© Copyright Keith Marshall, 1993.
© Copyright Keith C Marshall, 2018. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 30 April 2018, Keith Marshall