Mimi; An Obituary

The one plus of being in poor health is it gives you time to reflect on life, the universe and the nature of cheese. I have had a fun filled week with yet another hospital visit where after I fainted. This was mainly due to the fact that I have a flu style virus although I do not feel that it has porcine connotations. I managed to miss circle yet again and in place of that delight I was woken by some of the local youths who had witnessed a cat being run over and thoughtfully carried it to my door. The young man and his companions were very distressed and thinking about it in retrospect he must have been heavily blood stained. There was nothing that could have been done as from the injury I conjectured that the poor thing had died instantly. He was not one of my cats but a regular visitor. We had originally named him ‘Hissy Fit’ as he had a strange guttural hiss, the like of which I had never come across. From the manner in which he lunged at food we decided that someone was not feeding him.

I traced him to a Somalian family living some ten houses away and one of their neighbours told me that he often came into their house for a feed as well. He used our cat flap to the manner born and he did not harass my cat family unduly so I did not mind the odd plateful. He was about three years old and once I had established that his actual name was Mimi (A strange name for a rather butch un-neutered male) I proceeded to call him by this. He only responded if I said it in a way that mimicked Somalian speech, which reminded me of how French cats sound French when they meow and to some extent, explained his strange hiss.

Unfortunately the family moved about six weeks ago and he was left behind. A cat basket was visible through the windows of their house so the intent to take him seemed obvious. I can only surmise that they had to make a move and he was not around at that time. He came twice a day after this and also made an appearance at one of my neighbour’s houses that borders the main road where he met his end. She named him ‘Del Boy’ after the character in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and this strangely suited him. I have not yet been able to tell her that he has passed away as my virus is keeping me housebound at the present. I did make a foray into the wood that I jokingly call a garden and buried him under the lilac bushes. He will be missed as he was such a character but we do suspect that Angel’s offspring may show similar genetic traits. Time will tell.