An ancient GrandPig keen to entertain his grandchildren, ETPB (4 years) and KJLB (6 months).

Peter Brighouse is hoping to be discovered.

Several generations of cats have inspired the art works and stories which show a zoologist's take on garden wild-life plus a modern day touch of Beatrix Potter style anthropomorphism.

The author and illustrator finds the writing easy, with the quality to be decided by yourselves; the illustrations and drawings most enjoyable to produce; the graphic design manageable, (after a career in computers), but the marketing most difficult.

In our fictional feline world we now have eight cats:

Mopprag (based upon Moppet) - the matriarch of the group, a proper lady, who stands no nonsense and expects to be treated in a respectable manner;

Tigtoes (based upon Tigger) - very fit, bouncy and daft, with orange stripes;

Squimps (based upon Simpkin) - a wise gentle animal, very affectionate, the non-identical twin brother of Tigtoes;

Bullpuss (based upon The Bullpuss) - a rehabilitated stray from the wilds of Fallowfield, very large, very street-wise, with a fine line in wise-cracks;

Tabitha (based upon Tabitha Twitchit) - a small dark stripy rescue cat, who likes her own way with most things and is often affronted if that doesn't happen;

Mungojerrie (based upon Mungojerrie, since we gave up bothering about copyright on famous felines' names) - the tallest ginger cat we have seen with a fluffy tail that reaches so high you can take him for walks on his built in lead.

I shall now add cats 7 and 8 to the Ginger Nuts Gang and integrate their charming stories into the sequence.

Ribby, named again for Beatrix Potter, a 3 year old stray, preyed upon by the Brass Cats of Rusholme and Moss Side, here in Manchester and rescued together with her third set of kittens by a dear friend.

Ruby, one of the four little girl kittens from Ribby's final batch.

Mrs Ribby is approaching 9 years old whilst daughter Ruby is 5 - May 2024

Introducing the Ginger Nuts

Moppet, Roz’s original cat, was quite a middle aged puss when Mark joined us. In fact Roz knew Moppet before she knew me!

Moppet was tortoiseshell and white and had a very assertive character – in the days when cats were supposed to be shut in downstairs at night and not allowed on beds (that didn’t last long!), Roz was the only person who Moppet would allow to carry her downstairs – if I tried, she would bite my nose! (Moppet, not Roz!!).

When Mark was around 6, Moppet was quite an old lady of 16 and we felt that it would be nice for Mark to have a couple of kittens of his own. So, after phone calls and a trip to a vets in Knutsford, Cheshire, we were shown 3 kittens, two brothers and a sister in a cage. The sister was already destined for someone else, otherwise we would have fallen for all three – she was a miniature Moppet. For the cost of a donation into the vets charity box, the two brothers were ours and Tigger and Simpkin became part of the family. They seemed to be the key to several things – not only did Louisa join us in March 1991, but they seemed to spark a new lease of life in Moppet, who reckoned she had better take them under her wing and try to make respectable pussy gentlemen out of them. She had heard that they were born on a farm in Knutsford, whereas she was a Londoner, from Hampstead Heath!

Cathy Maclachlan

@Cathy

Lower Hutt

Cathy Maclachlan has not written a story.