Since
1987 Jenny Fensom has run a boarding cattery at her home in Bedfordshire. She
has also owned 12 cats of her own during the last 25 years, only one of which
was chosen by herself: all the others were old or middle-aged rescues, either
dumped at the local vets, or a stray, like Oliver, who turned up one day on the
door step. Each one has a different story behind it, and in "Cat
Etudes" Jenny relates how they all came to live with her and Anthony, her
brother, and played an important role in family life. Odd coincidences
surrounded four of them, linking them to Jenny’s and Anthony’s late father
and past family and friends.
Some of the visitors to the
cattery are featured, all of whom have been taking their annual holiday there
for many years. There are also tales of some favourite feline companions of
close friends, one of whom, back in the early seventies, paid five shillings at
a refreshment kiosk for a sickly male kitten that grew into a handsome cat.
Another kitten bought for sixpence from a market stall in Petticoat Lane lived
to be 18.
We read about the two ordinary-looking moggies
that arrived incognito at the cattery one Christmas and turned out to belong to
a world famous actor. And also we are introduced to an absent-minded professor
and his long-suffering wife who Jenny worked for back in 1962 at the local
village boarding kennels and cattery.
Several of the stories here are sad, but there
are many more amusing anecdotes, such as that of Typhoo, the wily Siamese who
outwitted his owners and avoided going into a cattery while the rest of the
family and dog went on holiday; and also we meet the feline equivalents of the
Kray brothers!
Last year (2005) Jenny wrote "Wag Tales:
An Anthology of Rescued Dogs", also published by d’ Arblays Press. All of
the 500 copies printed were sold which encouraged Jenny to write a follow-up
book on cats.
For every copy of "Cat Etudes" sold
£1 will go to Jenny’s favorite charity, Animals Asia Appeal, to save dogs and
cats from the meat trade in China. For more information on this charity go to www.animalsasia.org
Jenny also has raised funds in the past for
the same charity’s Free the Captive Moon Bears that rescues bears that are
kept in appalling conditions in China and farmed for their bile which is used in
Chinese medicine.
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