RIP Mouchou

My nextdoor neighbours, Aurelie and Benjamin, had two delightful little cats, Scratchie and Mouchou. Scratchie was their first. He’s quite small, black and white in colour and has a lovely friendly nature. We got to know each other quite early on because I was around a lot while Aurelie and Benjamin were both out at work, and he used to come across and see Toddie and me when he wanted a bit of company, the way that cats do, and still does.

Then Mouchou came on the scene and everything changed. Although he was younger than Scratchie, he was brash and full of confidence the way that juveniles are and seemed to take charge of things. Scratchie knows that Toddie won’t harm him, but is still a bit wary of him and doesn’t let him approach to closely. On the other hand, Mouchou seemed to know from the outset that they’d be friends and went out of his way to forge a relationship with Toddie almost as soon as they met.

Because Toddie is old now, he’s a little bit rough and awkward. It was as though Mouchou knew that and made allowances, because he would let him sniff and lick him all over before eventually deciding that enough was enough and scampering off to look for new sport. But he enjoyed it – Toddie’s eyesight isn’t what it was and when we plodded around our garden, it was easy for him not to notice Mouchou lying somewhere in the sun or curled up asleep in the shade. Then, if Mouchou saw us, he’d come flying across but, being a cat and never wanting to look over-keen about anything, when he was close enough he’d stop running and than saunter nonchalently up to Toddie to say hello.

I loved watching Scratchie and Mouchou hunting together on my front lawn, as though they were big cats on the African veldt. They’d both be crouched down in the grass and first one would move forward and then the other, crouching down again in turn as they did. Goodness knows what they were hunting because I never ever saw them catch anything. Mouchou also took a delight in hunting solo, creeping up on unsuspecting butterflies and other insects on my lawn only to see them leap into the air and fly or hop off when he made his final leap. I’d find him lying in the sun on the roof of my car with paw marks all over the bonnet, and when I said, ‘Oi, what d’you think you’re doing?’, he’d just ignore me. Then instead of jumping off, he’d roll over on his back to get me to rub his tummy for him.

But at times he was a bit too cocky and over-confident. He thought he was the master of all he surveyed and many’s the time I’ve driven up in my car, seen him sitting in the middle of the road and refusing to move until the last minute. I’ve made him get out of the road lots of times but you can’t always be there and in a way, it was an accident waiting to happen. Then yesterday evening I was in my garden with Toddie and a lady who was walking past asked if I was looking for my cat. I said that I wasn’t, but she pointed and said that there was the body of one at the edge of the road right outside my house. When I went to look I knew immediately that it was Mouchou. Later on I went to tell Aurelie and Benjamin and after Benjamin had seen the small, damaged body for himself, he said that he knew that Mouchou used to go in the road but that he couldn’t do anything about it. I said that of course he couldn’t, there was nothing that he could have done, because cats do what they want and you can’t make them do anything.

RIP Mouchou. It’s a very sad day, we’ll all miss him and maybe Toddie will too. I can hardly believe that we’ll never see him again, but I bet he’ll be making them laugh just as he did me, in that little heaven where all the good pussy cats go.