In April 2005 Brenda had decided she was besotted with the idea of getting a blue female Burmese kitten. She surfed the internet and foundThe Burmese Cat Club. They in turn gave her the name of breeders in the south east of England who had litters of blue female kittens. This lead to Claire in Bishops Stortford. We visited this little kitten just before we picked up Louie.

At the time she was amongst a pile of brothers and sisters who had just flopped out to sleep on the sofa after suckling mum (Hinny - see above). Bren picked her up. Fast asleep. So asleep she looked as if she was dead. This is probably the last time we saw her still for so long...

We picked her up from Claire a month later when she was three months old. The picture on the left is the last time she suckled her mother Hinny. We had yet to realise the feline dynamo we were about to take home with us...

Tiny Dynamo

This is Ellie. Short for Electra (taken from the name of the cat in T.S. Elliots' Old Possum Cats and Andrew Lloyd Webbers' Musical "Cats").

She arrived in Kent on 21st June 2005. Relationships weren't easy between Louie and Ellie for quite a few weeks.(see Introducing a second cat) Many times we stood back and watched them fight and squeal knowing they had to work out the hierarchy and control of the territory themselves. Interestingly enough right from the beginning feline experts had told us that there was no doubt that that a Burmese would always be "top cat" on any territory. This we were told was due to their intelligence feistiness, and extrovert personality. In fact after six months it is clear that Louie is the dominant cat. He manages to get all the "high" and "warm" spots and he also tends to win all fights and spats. Whatever Ellie has may well be balanced off by Louies' size and weight.

Whatever. One thing's for sure. This little cat deserves ten out of ten for trying. And trying again. Again and again and again....
I think she thinks if she cant beat Louie she will wear him down bit by bit ...