Cats Called Charlie (Part one)

I've had cats for about 20 years. But never been that lucky with them. Only one at a time of course, don't like them that much!

My wife decided back in 1991 that we ought to get a cat, I wanted a dog but realised that as we were out at work all day,best we get a cat instead. Cats kind of look after themselves so it seemed the best option.

We went to our local pet shop and saw what can only be described as a typical moggy. It was a tabby kitten. Perfect, we both thought and brought him home. We called him Charlie.

Charlie lasted about 4 months. He was to become Charles 1st.

We kept him in the house during those first few weeks, too small to go out on his own yet of course, so he stayed in the kitchen during the day with lots of newspaper down and a litter tray.

After he was about 12 or 14 weeks, we let him out in the garden during the day. I installed a cat flap in the back door so that Charlie could come and go as much as he liked. We lived in a small close. Only 8 houses in the road and it was away from any busy roads, so we were sure that Charlie would be ok.

It was my birthday and I'd decided to go out with a few mates and have a few beers, leave the car at home and get a cab there and back.

I left the lads at about 11.30, a bit worse for wear, flagged down a black cab and headed home. I was giving the cabbie directions to my house as it was a bit of the beaten track.

"Turn left here mate and its just a few hundred yards along on the right hand side" I slurred slowly.

As we pulled into the close and were slowing down, the cab suddenly jolted. "What was that?" I asked. " Not sure mate, I think there was a brick in the road and we've just gone over it" he replied.

No worries, the cab pulled up outside my house, i paid him, went inside and went quickly to bed.

We were awoken at about 06.45 by a knock at the door. I, bleary eyed, went down the stairs and opened the front door. It was my next door neighbour, Tony. He was holding something in his arms. Yes, you've guessed it! Charlie.

He had found him in the middle of the road, he'd been run over.

That was the end of Charles 1st.

I never did tell my wife the full story, for obvious reasons!

Next came Charles 2nd.

My wife was a little upset about the first Charlies demise, so as a suprise the following weekend, I went on my own to a cat rescue centre a few miles away. I'll make up for the "accident" with the first Charlie I thought.

When I got to the rescue centre, there were hundreds of cats and kittens there. Hard to choose of course as they are all desperate for someone to love them.

But after about 30 minutes, I spied a small cat about 6 months old in a cage at the back of the garage in the garden of the centre. He had exactly the same markings as Charles 1st, in fact they could have been twins.

Thats the one for me, I thought. I called the lady over and told her the one I wanted.

She said the cat was a "wild" cat and would probably never be tamed. She tried to disuade me from the purchase, but I was having none of it. "Thats the cat I want" I said. Ok, she agreed reluctantly. But take the cage with you and keep him in the cage for a good few weeks until he gets used to you, DO NOT LET HIM OUT OF THE CAGE UNTIL YOU ARE CONFIDENT THAT HE HAS CALMED DOWN!

She said this over and over again. I agreed,

I was delighted, I was driving back home to my wife with a great present. A new cat that looked exactly like our dear unlucky Charlie.

When I got home, my wife was thrilled."Hes gorgeous" she kept saying, we agreed that he would be Charles 2nd.

Now at this stage you would think that I would have remembered what the lady at the rescue centre had said, but no, the excitement must have been too much. We were in the lounge, me, my wife and Charlie. I opened the cage door!

This thing, this wild, mad, beast of a thing, lept straight at me and started tearing bits of my clothes from me. I screamed, my wife screamed!

It lept from me onto my new sofa and tore a strip out of it within seconds. It then went behind the sofa.

We were both in shock!

I had blood coming from about 15 scratches on my arm, my shirt was ripped, the sofa had a hole in it and now there was this low growling noise coming from behind the sofa.

We sat there for a few minutes and tried to decide what to do. Lets leave him for a while and see if he calms down, this was my thinking. She agreed.

The cat stayed behind the sofa for four days!

We were both too terrified to go near it. Everytime we tried to have a look or move the sofa, the growling became louder and so we backed away. In desperation I went and got a huge landing net that I use for carp fishing, I dressed up as though it was the coldest day on record. I quickly moved the sofa and threw the landing net over the wild beast. I then picked the thing up and threw him in the cage and shut the door. I felt like I had just beaten Mike Tyson.I was elated.

I took Charles 2nd back to the rescue centre and left him still in the net inside the cage. I left a note on the cage saying "Sorry" and a twenty pound note.

That was the end of Charles 2nd.

Some weeks later it was time to try again. This time we both went to get a cat. I never told my wife about the rescue centres advice about the wild cat so she thought that we had just been unlucky again.

Thats how we got Charles 3rd. But thats in part 2.