Grandmother's House - 5 - A Strange Affinity

Before moving on to the last room I must pause here to tell you about my Nan's strange affinity with cats.  You see she never bought a cat and was never given a cat but cats she always had.

Shortly after her marriage a stray cat came to her door. She took it in and it remained with her for the rest of its life.  Within forty eight hours of its death another cat appeared out of nowhere and the same thing happened.  Thus it went on - within a couple of days of the demise of the last cat, another one would appear, sometimes at the back door and sometimes at the front. On occasion they would just walk in.  Some cats were old when they appeared, others were sick but whatever time they had left they lived it out with her.

With her gift of the second-sight and people coming to her for advice on all matters it is a sobering thought to realize that centuries ago she would have been classed as a Witch and possibly hanged.

For some reason that none of us ever fathomed, each cat had exactly the same name - "Tutney".  Where she got this name from we will never know but every cat that came received the same name from her, male or female it made no difference, although the cats were usually male.

Nan always had a cat on her knee as she held court at the kitchen table, her cats followed her everywhere.

The last Tutney never left her.  In her last few years, bedridden and with hardly any sight left, Tutney slept nearly all the time on her chest or stomach and she would stroke him for hour upon hour. He would only leave her to eat or to answer the call of nature.

Came the fateful day.  Aunt Bet who had so lovingly cared for Nan all through her declining years had to go into hospital herself, it could not be put off or she would lose her leg.  My Mother could not take Nan because there was no spare bedroom. In the end it had to be decided that Nan would go into hospital whilst Bet received her treatment in another. Everyone did their best to explain to her but  Nan begged and pleaded not to go, she wanted to live out the rest of her time in her own home and eventually pass away in the same room as her beloved Will.  Nothing could be done.  The ambulance came to take Nan away. Tutney went outside and sat watching her being carefully loaded into the ambulance, then he went back into the house, wandered around Nan's room as if taking one last look and then he left the house never to return or  even to be seen again.  Tutney had sensed what none of us could possibly know - Nan would not be coming back. 

Nan died within days, I think of a broken heart. She just gave up once she was forced to leave her beloved home.

No cat ever lived in or entered my Grandmother's house again.

 

Excuse me for wandering off at a tangent but I wanted to put this entry about Nan and her cats on before I proceed to complete the story of my Grandmother's house.