Simba joined our family as a 6-month old via vet brother-in-law Peter and came all the way from Cornwall. She was always one to climb, thieve food, scrabble furniture & carpets and generally misbehave. She was also an outrageous tart around any male visitor whether human or canine. Her great claim to fame was washing father-in-law’s border collie’s face for him (obviously she had thought it dirty), which totally ruined the dog’s street cred. In her pre-mother days, she managed to knock over a bottle of whisky and we found her absolutely blotto in her basket. I rather fancy she’d washed her paws clean after walking through the spillage, there were certainly sticky footprints everywhere.

Selina and I chose Simba’s mate at a local breeder. We thought him very handsome with a wonderful nature, but Simba thought otherwise and managed to rip his ear on her second conjugal visit to him. But, even so, we all saw Rizzi being born in March 1989. We were delighted when we saw Rizzi had pink pads because that meant she had her Sorrel Abyssinian father’s colouring.

Rizzi’s full name was Adkrish Apricot Rizzini, but she was always known as Rizzi. She was that gorgeous sorrel colour of her father but some ignorant humans thought she was an odd coloured, ginger moggy and therefore male! For some reason, Rizzi was never as friendly as her mum and rather inclined to hiss and spit. She became very much a one-person (Rosemary) cat after Simba’s death. Like most cats, she could disappear at the drop of a hat and once did so to such an amazing effect that Rosemary was summoned and had to drive home 50 odd miles from work to help look for her. She eventually materialized and you could have sworn she was saying she thought she’d better hide while all the shouting, calling and crying was going on. Like her mum, she could never understand the human idea of bringing flowers and plants indoors, other than as something to play with and chew, although cacti presented more of a challenge, but did not defeat her. And for an indoor cat, she had a shocking kill-record of birds, mice and sundry insects. She was an excellent companion when Steve was away during the week and upheld her end of the conversation usually better than he would have done.

Simba was put to sleep in March 2003 and Rizzi in July 2006. Rosemary was privileged to be with both cats at the very end.