Sashkin's story
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Sashkin
born 4th August 1982 When two cats died within three months of each other in 1982, both naturally and of a good age, the rest of the family said that they didn't think we needed any more animals. By then we only had cats. I was very upset about this, having so soon lost both my very best friends and when Myrtle found me crying on the sofa one day, she realised how much it had meant to me and agreed that I could look for another cat. Of course I did not just want to try and replace them with look-alikes, so looked through some of our books about cats to see what sort I might like. With our finances in a better state now, I thought about buying a pedigree cat and started to look for adverts for Burmese as they are similar to Siamese in shape and temperament. While looking through Exchange and Mart later that week, I found an ad. for Lilac Point Siamese kittens and looking at a picture of what we thought were such cats, that we had hung in the living room, decided to go and have a look. The owner lived in South London and turned out to be a school teacher who liked to breed from her three adult pets. Two were seal-point but the mother cat was a lilac-point and so were her kittens. They were not like our picture! We were charmed by one of the brothers who sallied forth to greet us; showed off by playing and then explored our cat basket. So I agreed that he was the one that I wanted and paid over the £ 50 that she asked. That much for one kitten! But it's not such a lot for a pedigree cat, and we had his pedigree and Cat Fancy register in the price, together with a tin of special kitten food that she said he liked. So into the basket for our new little friend and then into the car for the drive home. That was the end of the happy little friend. We then found out what volume of noise a highly bred Lilac Point Siamese kitten could make! He shouted to the world that we were catnapping him and had him trapped in a prison! We had to stop after five minutes and get him out of the basket so that Myrtle could cuddle and calm him but although the noise abated a little, he still struggled and complained all the way and the drive through South, Central and then North London felt like forever. We looked forward to him getting back to the kitten we had first met, once we got home. There he defintely didn't like the special kitten food but was pacified by the others and although it took a few days, he got over his shock and settled in well. Most of his very adventurous story is in Chapter 13 and later chapters of book 2 of our History (link under menu, Text). When new cats came into his life he was happy to see them. Here he helps the kitten Grizabella to learn how to "eat it all up"! 
He was 14 when he died on 26th May 1997 in Denmark. |
