Sunday 13 July 2008

Double Trouble

When Dee and I first met our grey cat, Bootsy (then called Ethel), she was runmates with an almost-identical brother, Austin. We were actually quite tempted to take two of them home - particularly when Austin crawling up my head - but we were told by the RSPCA that the cats needed to be separated, "because Ethel needs to come out of Austin's shadow".

In retrospect, this statement seems laughable, since these days I can't even imagine the shadow of Dracula's Castle giving her much trouble. As Bootsy has become increasingly the boss of all our other moggies (is it possible to have a pride of cats? If so, Bootsy has a pride of five), we've often wondered what became of Austin, and just what kind of superenormous personality Boots's more dominant brother would have by now, so it was with more than a little interest that I read an email recently from Graham, who had read about Bootsy's appearance in Under The Paw in a newspaper, and said that, from all the evidence - the rescue centre, the date, the violently narcissistic personality traits - it appeared that she was the long lost sister of his cat Oscar (nee Austin).

If this was an episode of Cilla Black's Surprise Surprise, we'd probably be arranging for the pair to reunite in mutually suitable territory, where they would sniff one another's arses, hiss a little bit, then proceed to completely ignore each other. As it is, Graham and I are probably going to be content just to send one another a few photos (I'm not sure video messaging could have any real benefits in this scenario). As you can see from the pics below, they're still very similar, and although Oscar has a mannish thickness about him, he's quite tiny in a Bootsyish way. According to Graham, this does not stop him from regularly terrorising cats twice his size.

Bootsy:





Oscar (the last one is my favourite):




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oscar's fallen asleep waiting for a 'ping .. -t' to respond in the penultime picture. Network diagnosis is such a drag...

Jo said...

Bootsy is a beautiful cat, I do like the 'blue' cats they look like velvet.

Anonymous said...

That pair are hilarious. I am jealous.

SG said...

Sadly, we lost Ella (as featured in 'Hard Cats #23) last Thursday to a short battle with Cancer. We'd said before the day came that we weren't going to have any more cats... Pah, famous last words. Our local animal sanctuary had an open day at the weekend. & what should I find myself seduced by, a little grey cat. (well alright there was also a black & white chap called Rafferty & a ginger & white kitten too, the list is endless)

She is what is commonly known as 'posh totty'. Just waiting for a home visit so hopefully we can bring her home soon. I've always thought Bootsy was so cute & cheeky looking so I can't wait to have my own little Boots :)

TeresaMartin said...

great