Dear Eve, I’m glad you liked my story about Banjul…… he was indeed an amazing cat. And I was lucky to have had him. A few years later a new set of paws came in to fill his place in the form of a black and white stray I got from a rescue centre in Paris when I used to live there a few years ago. And this chap is called Guy……in French it’s pronounced Gi – so he’s called Gigi….. In 2001 I moved to Marseille in the South of France and Guy “Gi” had up until then always been alone…..he was about 2 when I moved to Marseille and I could tell that stuck in a flat all day alone he was getting a bit bored…..it’s not fair to have cats in apartments at the best of times so I thought the best thing I could do was to get him a little brother to play with. So I went to the SPA “Société Protectrice des Animaux” French Animal Welfare Association and there I found a little skinny, not particularly beautiful, big eared black cat which ended up being Emily, so not a brother but a sister for Gi. They stayed with me in Marseille tearing around the flat at top speeds all day and all night until a couple of years ago when my parents moved to the South West of France from England (where Banjul’s remains were re-buried). There my parents have a lovely big house in the country surrounded by acres of land. They inherited a 20 year old Siamese cat who came with the house, called Wicky. The previous owners didn’t want to traumatise her by moving her to their new place and taking her away from the place she’d been born in. By the time my parents moved to the South West of France I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay in Marseille or not – the possibility of moving to Bruxelles was an option and then I thought there was no way I could take Gi and Emily and but them together in a tiny flat in Bruxelles……….So, the inevitable happened and they were taken to my parents where Gi (who up until then had always been a flat cat, all his life) took to the great outdoors and is now outside catching mice and alike all day and all night – he’s turned into a total farm cat and has grown like nobody’s business. He always comes in in the morning and sits on my mother’s newspaper while she’s having her tea…..he eats a bit and is off again outside whatever the weather…….Emily enjoys racing up and down the big corridors and skidding on the carpets and she only goes outside to sit on the terrace when the sun is out. The lady of the house i.e. Wicky was quite shocked and put out to find all these young thugs racing around her house and territory but she never took any nonsense and although Gi is twice as big as her, with one stare she could fix him right into place and he wouldn’t move. Both Emily and Gi respected her enormously……oh and Bahga………Bagha is the fourth cat, a Bengal cat who is absolutely gorgeous and real gentlemen…….but that’s another story. Wicky died recently at the age of 23! She just got up one day went outside and never came back. We searched everywhere for her but never found her. That’s of course what cats do when they go to die. At least she could die in peace at home. I must get back to work. Speak to you soon. Fabienne