Lupin

Lupin is more than just a ginger cat. He’s a ginger tabby, which means he has all those beautiful tabby markings, but they’re orange-coloured instead of brownish. His coat is quite long, and his tail is very long.

There’s an old saying that God made the cat so that man could have the pleasure of playing with the tiger. Like the tiger, the cat is a great hunter, so if you’re fond of wild birds, take care where you put your bird table. Otherwise, as well as feeding the birds on scraps, you’ll be feeding the cat on birds.

Feeding your cat or kitten is easy – you can buy lots of good cat foods, but remember that cats are choosy animals. They’re not like dogs, which will usually gobble up any old food you give them. You’ll find that your cat will probably decide on one special flavour of one special brand, and turn its nose up at anything different. Of course cats like milk or cream, but it doesn’t always agree with them and they don’t really need it. Just give them water to drink. Spoiling cats by feeding them chicken or steak only makes them lazy and uninteresting and fat, and that suits the mice, because fat cats don’t hunt.

Lupin thinks a lot of himself. A dog will look at you as if to say, ‘You’re lovely!’ When Lupin looks at you, he’s thinking, ‘I’m lovely, you must agree.’

Like most cats, he’s very clean. When he was a kitten, he learned straight away to use first a dirt box and then the garden, and he spends a lot of time washing and grooming himself, right to the very tip of that long, long tail.

Dodo is busy in the daytime, and sleeps at night. Lupin sleeps quite a bit by day, and at night he’s out hunting. I don’t know what his favourite sort of mouse is, but his favourite tinned food is the rabbit-flavoured one. Don’t tell Frank.