clog blog: BILLYBOB

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