It was only a matter of time before the boys showed up on this blog. This is Giles. He is, as you can tell, extremely elegant and shiny. He is also terrified of his own shadow (seen behind him here).
We adopted Giles as a kitten in Johannesburg, along with his sister, Mabel. Emily, the best cat in the known universe was still with us, but she had leukaemia, and we knew she wasn’t going to live to a ripe old age. Hannah had run away from us in Grahamstown, and moved in with the neighbours, so we had only one cat. We didn’t intend to adopt a pair – we were actually after their older brother, but we decided he was a bully and came home with two tiny little scraps of nothing and fur. Mabel, his sister, escaped the flat and was killed in traffic, two weeks after we got them. Giles once got out, about a year later. We found him underneath the stairs, metres from his front door, crying with fear.
Poor Giles, we’ve dragged him halfway round the world, and he hates leaving his home. He spent four months in quarantine in the UK as well, and hated it. I think he spent the whole time under a blanket. He loves us, and trusts us, despite this, and we love him, even if he will never be a fierce jungle cat, defending us from all comers.