Candy, Shellby, or Cat?

I love cats. I love dogs, too. In fact I have a great love of many, many animals. Mainly mammals, it has to be said. Not that I've got anything against any other type of animal. I just prefer mammals.

Cats, though, I love more than all other animals. Not just 'domesticated' cats, (a term I would use loosely in relation to cats) all cats: small, medium and big. I admire, respect, and even revere, cats. I have done so from a very young age, and I have inculcated my daughter from an even younger age to also love cats.

We don't 'have' a cat, and I use that term, 'have', even more loosely. As I would the term 'own' when it comes to cats. I think most people know cats are not like dogs. Dogs you can own, cats you can't. Anyone in any doubt about that, in fact anyone in any doubt about cats full-stop, and there are lots of people who just don't understand cats, wants to read 'The Cat That Walked By Himself' by Rudyard Kipling.

The next door neighbours 'have' two cats. They've had them since they were kittens, the cats not the neighbours. Kumali and I have communed with both cats since we first met them. Felix has shown no great interest in us; Candy has.

Candy has taken to coming into our house at every available opportunity. We've taken to calling Candy 'Shellby'. The next door neighbours son can often be heard calling for Candy. We can often be heard saying to each other, 'We better wake her up and put her outside.'

We rarely do, and it is getting to the stage where Candy/Shellby spends most of it's time in our house. Candy/Shellby? She's a cat who walks by herself.

I think I might buy a copy of the Kipling's story for the boy who lives next door, before I break the news to him!