Bluebottle Lived Life On Her Terms

Bluebottle was feisty. An outdoor cat who came indoors but never lost her feral side. Bluebottle lived life on her terms. She loved log fires and food on demand. But she was less keen on paying the rent in the form of cuddles!

Bluebottle’s Family Tree

Is It Safe For Me To Come Out Now (c) Dorothy Berry-Lound
Bluebottle when she was a tiny kitten

Any cat will tell you that their family history is an important part of who they are. Bluebottle was the only kitten of Pinocchio, a black and white cat who was the daughter of Cutex who was the daughter of Angela. Angela was the first wild cat to come and live outside our house in Italy and was the founder of our little colony. Bluebottle’s father was Doughnut, a tabby cat.

Bluebottle was born at Easter in 2006, on the porch outside our front door. A little white and grey tabby kitten with huge eyes. Eyes so big in fact they gave us an idea for her name Bluebottle – after the flies with huge eyes!

Born With A Strange Deformity

Hidden Kitten Mosaic (c) Dorothy Berry-Lound
Bluebottle liked to hide and then jump out and surprise you

Bluebottle, or Blue as she became known, was born with a strange deformity to her tail. Just below the tip there was a complete circle of tail where it had all fused together. We had never seen anything like it, nor since! Our vet clinic said she would have to have the end of her tail amputated when she was older.

Pinocchio took matters into her own hands (or paws) and one morning the tail was completely straight. The skin and fur eventually grew back and our vet was stunned.

Lost and Found

One day we watched Pinocchio walk up the drive with little Bluebottle toddling along behind. She was about five weeks old.  Several hours later Pinocchio came back alone. We searched for hours! No sign of the kitten and lots of tears. Two days later, our big ginger tom cat, Berlington Bertie, came down the drive and behind him was our missing kitten, thin but okay. So we brought her indoors to keep her safe.

Bluebottle Never Lost Her Wild Side

Bluebottle (c) Dorothy Berry-Lound
Madam Bluebottle

Bluebottle adapted well to being in the house and to being spayed. Once old enough she went outside when she pleased. She loved everything in the house except cuddles. She would lay for hours purring in front of the log fire. But she hated being picked up and would bite. We just had to accept that was Blue. If she got up on our lap we would sit still like rocks, you couldn’t touch her or you could get badly scratched or bitten. We would just enjoy the fact that for ten minutes she wanted to sit with us.

Teasing The Dog

Bluebottle enjoyed teasing our dog Barnie. She would sit on a chair hiding and as he went past she would lean over and smack him on the head with her paw, withdrawing again quickly so he couldn’t see her. He used to look around in bewilderment and I swear Blue was giggling each time.

Bluebottle Waiting for Lizards (c) Dorothy Berry-Lound
Bluebottle hunting lizards

Filling the Gap

Bluebottle died in 2015 and the whole household missed her. Soon after I took in two more stray kittens, Stevie Mouse (see Stevie’s story) and Emmy and I think Bluebottle would have enjoyed knocking them into shape.

As you can see, Bluebottle did make it into my gallery of cat portraits. You can see more of my cat art at my online gallery.

 

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13 thoughts on “Bluebottle Lived Life On Her Terms

  1. angela1313 says:

    What a wonderful story. She was so lucky to find people who would accept her for herself and you were lucky to get her to appreciate and care for.

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