The Enid Blyton Society

Ruby looks sleepy even when basking in the sun! Hope she doesn't get tan.

Rob Houghton wrote:Ruby enjoying the November sunshine! What a life!

Such a great picture!!!

I enjoyed these two recent BBC features on "cats with careers" in lots of different lines of work:

Bureaucats: The felines with official positions

Whiskers in the workplace: More cats with careers

My favourite "working cat" in Enid Blyton is Sooty from the Pink-Whistle stories — although I've always been slightly baffled by the fact that Sooty is a he in some stories and a she in others!! I get the impression more of them have Sooty as female, but I'd have to sit down and re-read them all, and I don't have the books with me here (my copies are back in Australia and I didn't get around to them while I was at my parents' house recently).

I just discovered something special online. I'm sure many of us here know the lovely prose poem "Rainbow Bridge", about the place "just this side of heaven" where pets who have died are made whole again and kept safe and happy until the person they loved on earth comes for them at last. That poem has been circulating anonymously around the world for decades and multiple people have claimed to be its author, but just earlier this year, the real author was finally tracked down and confirmed. It's a bit of a surprise, too! Here's the story as published by National Geographic:

The "Rainbow Bridge" has comforted millions of pet parents. Who wrote it?

Thanks Courtenay, that was very interesting as I know the "Rainbow Bridge" well and it has even been translated into German. While it always brings a tear to my eye it is also very comforting

At the (unintentional) risk of offending pet owners, is it a coincidence that PETS is an anagram of PEST?

As many on here, like myself, are cat lovers I thought I would post this which I read this morning whilst going through the news on my iPad. This is a screenshot.

I was totally distraught to read this as it's less than 10 miles from where I live. I hope they catch the culprit responsible.

Having seen the headline, I can't bring myself to read the article, Boatbuilder. But I saw more than enough to see what it was about, unfortunately. Absolutely barbaric.

I'm currently dealing with a similar ongoing concern. A cat and her kittens have turned up in the neighborhood and regularly visit the garden for food and as a lovely sanctuary - unfortunately, one of the neighbours is the kind who sees 'pets as pest' and wouldn't be above doing something barbaric to any 'invading' their garden.

We've tried phoning all kinds of charities to see if they'd come and take them, or at least neuter and return, but they're all so busy and full, due to the cruelty of humans, that they all just suggested others to try, who then did the same, etc. So we don't want know what to do, as we don't want to stop feeding them - especially with winter coming - but we're also afraid of what the neighbour might do especially if even more start turning up.

That's just ghastly, absolutely horrific, John (Boatbuilder). And Bertie, I hope the mother cat and kittens do find a safe home somewhere soon.

Thanks, Courtenay.
I don't know how they'll find a home though. There's 5 kittens, plus the mum, and they'll probably be increasing in numbers before long (if they survive the winter).

We tried all the main cat / animal charities - who had a number of reasons between them why they couldn't help: mostly, because they're swamped and only dealing with emergencies and not just general, seemingly healthy strays. Others didn't have a branch in their neighbourhood. Another's cattery was being refurbished... And so it went on.

We then tried much smaller, more local charities. But no joy for similar reasons, and some just didn't reply at all. The kittens are now (not then, but by now) past the 16 week age that most of the charities said was the best time to domesticate and re-home them. So I can't see any coming out for them now, and we've run out of options to try anyway.

Bertie, I take it the RSPCA was one you tried. My younger cat Suki (my avatar) was one that was brought in by the Norfolk RSPCA, along with her sister, when she was a matter of a few weeks old. In her case when they were called out by somebody to a village in Norfolk there were a number of cats/kittens living as ferels. Her mother was nowhere about so they just took in the kittens.

Boatbuilder, yes RSPCA and Cats Protection League were the two we tried first and had the most faith / trust in. But both just said they were swamped, and one didn't have anyone working this area and the other was only dealing with emergencies where the animal was injured or being mistreated.

They gave a similar list of options to try - which we worked down, starting with the ones we'd most heard of, but each had similar reasons why they couldn't help, unfortunately.

We're happy to keep feeding this amount, and the kittens are lovely to watch, but obviously there's a number of concerns: the winter weather and the cruel neighbour in terms of the animals dying - or, if they survive, the likelihood of the numbers keep increasing as none have been neutered.

We were really hoping they'd be re-homed, or at least neutered and returned so their numbers wouldn't increase. We can't really adopt six cats (mother and 5 kittens) ourselves as house cats, as I have a nervous cat already, and my parents do as well, and we don't want to dishearten either of them by having their homes completely taken over. So for now the best we can really do is keep feeding them and we'll try and prepare some kind of garden shelters for them for the winter ahead, I suppose.

It seems like you are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea where options are concerned, Bertie. I just hope everything works out for the best, one way or another. No doubt you'll keep us posted on that.

When my late wife and myself took on Suki in 2019 the RSPCA supplied us with a voucher to enable her to be neutered for free by our vet, although we did make a donation to the RSPCA over and above the statutory amount they charge when you take a rescue animal. All I can say is that it was money well spent.

That's a lovely thing you did with the donation, Boatbuilder. And taking in a rescue cat. We did mention we'd happily give a donation to plenty of the charities we spoke to if they could help, but none were in a position to do so.

Most of the cats my parents, and now I, take on have generally been visiting the garden as strays and we've been feeding them - and then taken them in if it coincided with our previous cats having just died and so not having any house cat to upset.

The kittens are all lovely to look at - the mother is ginger and white, and one is all ginger, two mostly white, and two a lovely mix of ginger, white and black. Though one of the whites has only appeared later on, so whether it's a hanger on we're not sure? And in the last few days the mother has started hitting out at the kittens when they try to eat with her - so we're hoping there isn't a new set of kittens on the way already!