Sidney – the wildest of cats.

This week I thought I would introduce you to some of the animals who have been important in my life.

This is Sidney.

He was my first pet. I am not counting all those much loved childhood dogs and cats – and rabbits, tortoises, budgerigars and hens. Those animals long remembered were mostly looked after by adults when the going got tough.

Sidney was different.

He was, as you can see a black and white cat. The most common colour for a cat but there was nothing common about Sidney.

He was born on the roof outside my office window and when still very tiny, he managed to escape the “controllers” who had been sent for to stop the feral cat problem.

He was too young to leave his mother but his mother wasn’t going to be around no more so I took the step..out of the window, over the roof and scooped up this small and very vicious creature.

I think I was always Mom after that. He was devoted, wild-eyed and insanely jealous of my friends. Often they would not know that I had a cat until it was too late. The running charge, talons extended and the feline and often bloody man hug to the leg before he was off again. Invisible once more.


He was the nearest a domesticated cat can be to a wild jungle cat. He turned my flat into a Beatrix Potter horror movie but all those dead animals were presents for me – even the wing-flapping blackbird on my bed in the middle of the night.

Sidney, you were great.

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