After my Ocicat Alexei died, when he was only 6 months old, I decided that I needed another kitten, both for my sake and also to keep his sister Tasha company while I was at work. Tasha and Alexei adored each other and played together like crazy kittens do.
I wanted a Siamese kitten and managed to find a breeder that had some kittens for sale. When I arrived at the cattery I was taken to a little room where the kittens were kept with their mother. All I could see was a haphazard pile of little black and dark brown Oriental kittens climbing all over their dark brown mother.
I was puzzled and said to the breeder that I had come to chose a blue point Siamese kitten. She said yes. At this stage I thought she was going to try to sell an Oriental cat to me. I do like Oriental cats, I lived with two for a while when I was flatting, but I really wanted a Siamese cat.
Then a little white head popped up from the middle of the pile of kittens and I saw my Guido for the first time. The breeder wouldn't let me handle him because of risk of infection and she said he was very timid. But I fell in love with him immediately. I had to wait a month before I could take him home.
When I arrived home with Guido I kept him in his cat carrier while I introduced him to Tasha. Tasha had an absolute fit when she saw him! I thought oh nooooo, what have I done? Guido was safe in his carrier and I took Tasha out of the room for a few hours and let Guido run around. Then I put Tasha into the cat carrier and let Guido inspect her for a short while from the outside. I kept both of them in separate rooms for a few days gradually introducing them to each other like this for longer and longer periods.
After a very stressful week they suddenly became best friends. Washing each other, giving each other hugs, playing together and sleeping on my bed. They became inseperable. It was such a relief.
Then a couple of months later I moved to the countryside and they had a great time being able to run around outside. Guido kept bringing me things that he found; slugs - yummy (not), especially when you wake up to see one lying next to your face on your pillow, dead butterflies - crunchy when you roll over in bed on them, twigs, a huge cutting from a rose bush which I have no idea how he got through the cat door. His favourite was to bring me large V-shaped pine needles. He held the join part in his mouth and watched the pointy bits as he ran along trying to catch the ends until he reached me.
One day I decided it would be fun to show him what he looked like in a mirror. So I took down the long mirror from my wall and put it down on the floor. Guido had a great time trying to figure the mirror out. Looking at his reflection and the other reflections from the room. When he pawed at the side of the mirror I asked him "what's behind the mirror?" a few times, then lifted up the mirror from the floor for him to have a look. That really confused him. We played for ages like this and then I put the mirror back on the wall.
The next day I was in the sitting room and asked Guido what was behind the mirror and he ran into my room, put his paw under the bottom of the mirror and pulled the bottom away from the wall! That was the beginning of another game we often played.
After dad had fixed the television aerial outside, Guido appeared in my room with a 3 foot long piece of black coaxial cabling off-cut that dad had left on the ground. Guido had dragged it through the cat door and through the house to me. He was only a little kitten. I played with the cable with him for ages, then tossed it into the sitting room. Guido hurtled after it, picked it up and brought it back to me! He loved that cable for many years.
When he lost the cable outside somewhere I decided to replace it because he like to play with it so much. So I went off to the hardware store for some more. I asked for 3 feet of black coaxial cable. The assistant asked me which type. I said it didn't matter. He then gave me an incredulous look and asked what I needed it for. So I told him it was for my cat to play with. You can imagine the look on his face then, it was a real picture!
Guido then started to bring anything long and black that he found to me to play with, including shoe laces, elastic, wool and ribbon.
Years later when I was at university I had to spend a lot of time studying at my desk. One day Guido appeared at my side carrying a cyclamen flower and he dropped it at my feet. I laughed and thanked him, giving him big cuddles. But when I picked the cyclamen up the flower fell off the stem. I told Guido not to mind, it was a lovely thought. Guido then dissappeared and returned a little while later with another cyclamen flower for me! I don't know how he managed to pull the flowers off the plant. I thanked him again and put the flower in a glass of water on my desk.
To be continued...xxx
