I recently had
to say goodbye to a very dear friend of mine, a treasured friend, the coolest
cat I'd ever met. This is a tribute to my treasured cat, BillyBob.
Why is BillyBob
the coolest cat ever I hear you ask? Well, not only was he the smartest most
handsome black and white tuxedo cat, he was a ROCKING companion! A little
LEGEND who crawled into my heart from the moment I met him. Full of life,
mischief, adventure and character! He most certainly was one in a million and will
forever be in my heart.
Back in the day,
I used to work at the local pet shop to save some cash for the usual weekend
teenager shenanigans and to fulfil a dream of travelling one day. One
particular occasion in April 1997, I was struggling to sell a litter of
kittens. Slowly but surely they started finding homes, all except for one… the
runt of the litter! How could this be? He was gorgeous! With his distinct black
Zorro mask covering his ears and eyes, white chin and special little black
patch on his chin! (Butter wouldn’t melt when he was in trouble and would look
at me with those ‘Puss in Boots eyes’ accompanied by that little tufty patch!
Needless to say he was never in trouble for very long!) He was a confident little
thing and quite spritely. I often took him out of the cage to parade him to try
and find him a home. Secretly hoping I wouldn’t find him one. And Boy was I
glad to discover that at the end of the day he was the only one left! I was
smitten and I was convinced he was meant to be mine! The years of joy, laughter
and companionship to follow, are in my mind, proof of that fact. I loved the
names ‘Billy’ and ‘Bob’ and could not decide on what to call him; to me, he
seemed a little of both. So a suggestion was made to just call him ‘BillyBob’
and it stuck! (And no! He was definitely NOT named after Billy Bob Thornton!!)
One of my
favourite memories of BillyBob is how he loved to lie on top of the fish tank
lid. He would casually lie stretched out on the top with his paws hanging down
on one side and his tail swishing on the opposite side just peering over the edge
and convinced that the unsuspecting fish that he was about to pounce could not
see him. Silly boy never cottoned on that his swishing tail was a dead
give-away! That was one of his favourite spots until the day we cleaned the
tank while he was in the room. He was very curious and seemed to want to be
involved in the process. So we let him stay until he started bopping the poor
fish while they were in their temporary bowl on the floor. So out he was
shooed! We cleaned the tank and put the fish back and slowly started to
assemble everything else, leaving the lid off while we were busy with the
fiddly bits of securing the plants and putting the thermometer back etc. But, at this point, we figured the fish were
safe, so we let him back in. Of course he's never known the fish tank not have
a lid on and so instinctually headed straight towards it, and before we could
intervene, SPLOOSH!!! One cat fully submerged into the tank, paws sunken into
the gravel and water and fish flying! I have never seen a cat move and jump
that fast in all my life! In one swift motion, he brought up all four legs and
clung onto each corner of the tank. He was not impressed and he was the same
spitting image of the horrified spiky-haired Nala in the Lion King when she
gets pulled into the water by Simba. With an almighty wail as if to say ‘How
could you?!’ he sped out of the room and it took a lot of convincing to get him
to come back in… even after a few weeks! Eventually, he was back on the lid to
attempt to pounce the fish and devour any fish
food left on the lid. To this day, I still laugh out loud whenever I think of
that!
Bobby was a very
social and curious cat. He loved investigating things and enjoying chilling in
company. He enjoyed the garden and prowling, but he wasn’t much of a hunter. He
actually tried catching a Hadeda Ibis once, but he just slid off of its back as
it shook him off and carried on with its business. So he brought me plenty of dead
leaves, twigs and mossy rocks instead!
Some of his
favourite activities included:
Terrifying and
terrorising the pooches by lurking at the bottom of the stairs or crouching on
the dining room table ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims or just casually
walking up to the poor shivering pooches and slapping them!
Sleeping (mostly
upside down)
Shaving with my
Dad ..
Eating (anything
and everything)
Chilling on
somebody’s lap
Waiting in the
middle of the driveway for you to come home, and then refusing to move
Slapping around
green beans on the kitchen floor or the plug in the bath!
Begging for
yoghurt at the fridge door (which he very seldom got)
Climbing into
any form of confined space like boxes, my suitcase, the bottom of my cupboard
or a plastic bag!
He earned many
nicknames for various reasons. My ultimate favourite is 'BobFrost' named by my
brother Darrell. We all know how cats have a particularly irritating trait of
desperately wailing to go outside, but when you scramble to open the door or a
window to let them out, suddenly they can’t seem to make up their minds as to
go out or not. Bobby was obviously in that indecisive mood one night in winter
when the decision was made for him and he was put outside! (He usually was out
all night anyway.) When Darrell returned from partying in the early hours of
the morning, he found a very sheepish yet unimpressed looking Boblet huddled
outside the front door… with a thin layer of frost on his coat! And so he became
known as BobFrost.
It is certainly
never easy being so far away when our precious friends get ill or something
like this happens. HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Peeps and the rest of my family for
loving him unconditionally and taking such good care of MY ANGEL twenty four /seven, three - six - five during
my absence. You all did a STIRLING job and I’ll be eternally grateful. Bobby
lived to a ripe old age and most certainly lived life to the full until his
body started giving up on him.
BillyBob, I will
treasure the beautiful memories I have of you FOREVER!! I’m so honoured that
you were mine and that I got to hang with you for many many many moons! You
were an incredible character and a loving friend! May you find plenty of green
beans to slap, fish tank lids to sleep on and dogs to terrorise in kitty
heaven! Rest in peace dear beloved
friend, rest in peace!!
All my love,
Mommy! xx
BillyBob getting cuddles from his Mommy
Handsome cat
One of his favourite places to laze about, the sun room
Bobby's favourite polka dot blanket
Scratching an itch
BillyBob
February 1997 –
January 2014
