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Puss was a domestic short-haired tabby with a neat white bib and socks, and a white stripe beside her nose. She had mad staring eyes and a loud, high-pitched shouting voice, but she moved very daintily and started out being very timid with everyone except Dac. Some years after he got her, he had to be away for a week for work, and that was the first time she came near me!
Something I discovered then: Little Puss had a prehensile tail. She would wrap it around my arm when she was sitting beside me.
She was a very busy cat. All the moths, rats and mice in the neighbourhood belonged to her, and she loved to bring them in through the cat door for us. While she was telling us how well she was providing for us, they would escape and flap/rush about the house. Puss would then behave like a cat, I fear, and play with her catch. When it finally stopped moving, she would leave it for us, sometimes in my bedroom doorway.
At one stage we got her a fancy $25 collar which sounded an electronic alarm whenever she jumped. It made her very cranky (I didn't much care for it either!) and she figured out that it could be circumvented simply by slinking about. When its battery went flat, we returned to double-belling Puss in the hope that the local wildlife would hear her coming.
Puss was very vocal at mealtimes as well as when she had her mouth full of prey - Puzzle never needed to say a word. Puss announced herself when coming into a room, which was useful, and she strode around the house in a businesslike fashion, making sure everything was in its rightful place. Because of the various renovations and modifications in recent years, things often weren't, and she can be seen here examining the new windowsills (L) and the new kitchen (R).
Like many cats, Puss liked to sleep on a warm car. As we drove off to swimming/work in the morning, I was often touched to see her dusty (or, on the very rare occasion when it rained, muddy) footprints down the middle of the windscreen. Our neighbour wasn't quite so impressed when she did it to his car, and that's when we got the cat cage.
It's necessary to mention that Puss regarded all chicken - cooked or raw; roast, boiled or fried; Turkish, KFC, Woolies - that came into the house as her property. She wailed and wailed till we gave her some, then she wailed and wailed till we gave her some more. The wailing could go on for a surprisingly long time. And no matter how much chicken she got, she remained - to use Dac's words - "thin, athletic, and very vocal".
She was an excellent cat and we miss her very much. There's a little more about her on More about Puss - and the short visit of Sambo.
Page created 18 December 2007; last updated 18 December 2007