Our Skimble & Jess

They’re our second pair of cats, a brother and sister born in January 2001, who joined us in late February the same year from a nearby cat rescue shelter. Sadly we left their mother plus 3 brothers and sisters behind, but they all found good homes – we know they must be good because of the owner vetting process we had to go through!

Both are going through the ‘spring madness’ at the moment (this was March 2008): Jess chases randomly about the house and Skimble has found his tail again and chases it incessantly. Skimble’s also bringing us regular presents of the reddest Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ leaves he can find in the garden. He announces their arrival with much fussing and meowing. This habit’s so pronounced, we call each one a ‘Very Important Leaf’ (VIL).

Jess is named after the cat owned by Postman Pat – how unoriginal we are! We took longer to name Skimble - after T.S. Eliot’s poem, Skimbleshanks The Railway Cat. This was the first poem that NAH learnt by heart as a child and I’m sure if our Skimble lived by a railway, he’d be ‘busy in the luggage van’ too. He’s twice the size of Jess, 13 pounds in weight to her 6. You certainly know it when he lands on your lap!

Here you can see Jess’ audition to be the next Felix pin up. I’m sure the call will come any day now. She’s the brains of the outfit, having worked out how to open a half locked cat flap when set to incoming cats only. She’s also the talkative one - Skimble’s the strong silent type, though both have purrs like engines. She loves milk, yoghurt, cheese, pasta sauce, soup, curry, porridge - even cider on one memorable occasion. She’s an avid watcher of wildlife programmes and was glued to the tiger documentary last Sunday. She licks my head (we say she has a licker problem - she also has the swishiest of tails) when I’m in the bath or sitting on the sofa. She’ll also come and wake me up in the morning when NAH’s downstairs getting the breakfast and leaving me to have a lie in - vigorous treading, purring loudly in my ear and sitting on my head’s her usual technique.

As well as a liking for boxes, Skimble’s a foot fetishist – he curls round my feet, licking then biting them, purring away like mad. He also likes to sit on me under my tapestry frame when I’m doing my needlepoint. Initially he chases the wool and finally falls asleep with his paws curled over my leg. He also has an endearing habit of snoozing with one paw over his eyes. He loves collecting elastic bands, finding the ones our postman leaves on the streets during his round. He brings them in with as much excitement and ceremony as the VILs. He’ll tread on me for ages if given the chance, preferably with his nose up my armpit. He’s also fascinated by watch glass reflections made on the wall by sunlight – he’ll jump and chase them all over the place. So much so, that NAH has bought a laser pointer for him to chase the red dot – eventually into NAH’s slippers at the end of the game.

Both of them loved sitting on top of the PC monitor and were most confused when we went flat screen. Nowadays Skimble tends to sit at my feet when I’m working on the computer. I always know when NAH’s arriving home as Jess has a special meow that she makes at no other time. She also rears up on her hindpaws when you stroke her. Both are fluent in Spanish as I used to chat away to them when I studied the language. They love to help around the house being particularly proficient at bed ironing, especially any jumpers, fleeces, trousers and pyjamas we leave there. They love reading the newspaper, especially if they can scan it through their bottoms. Naturally they’re extremely good at gardening – that’s why they’re our ‘Garden Helpers’ ;)