A Chain of Events

Although inspired by Jeeves and Wooster, cats take centre stage as this true story takes on a more personal view. I have changed the names of my husband and daughter for their anonymity. The photos of the cats are of Wheat (above story), Plain & Patterned (below story).

With another feline tale (fictional) to follow in a couple of weeks, March 2022 is Cat Month on Chasqui’s Writing World!

A CHAIN OF EVENTS

When she was very young my daughter Lisa loved having stories read to her. Even when she was able to read for herself, she still enjoyed listening to the unfolding of tales in more advanced books. It was as a result of this that, at about age 7, on finding me absorbed in a Jeeves and Wooster book, she asked me to read it to her. I had my reservations about her understanding many of the words and phrases, but it is harmless enough and so I re-embarked on it at the start of Chapter One. I forget which book it was or where this particular piece of amusement cropped up, but she has remembered it to this day and often refers to it – the scenario centring on an unusual word Jeeves had used, with Bertie trying to recall it.

“Cats enter into it, if I’m not wrong.” Bertie helpfully added.

“Would concatenation be the word you are seeking?” offered Jeeves, and it transpired that he had got it in one!

Lisa then asked me the meaning of concatenation, and I have to admit that I had to look it up in the dictionary and discovered that the word describes a chain of events. She found this highly amusing in view of Bertie’s recollection being merely that cats had entered into it, when in actual fact it had nothing to do with cats and it was obvious to her that he had understood little of the previous day’s conversation with Jeeves.

Over the weekend of 2012’s August Bank Holiday a young stripey cat appeared in our back garden for the first time. He was small, cute and very curious and, having investigated our garden, went into our neighbour’s but then disappeared from sight. We saw him a few times after this, and on more than one occasion he appeared to respond to being called by his owner, a lady living in one of the flats in the next road. When I say respond, I mean that he bounded off, no doubt eager for a meal, but we were slightly puzzled as to his name as she seemed to be calling “Wheat”. We thought we had misheard but in the ensuing 18 months we heard “Wheat” being called almost daily. How this has any bearing on a chain of events, other than having a link with Bertie’s partial recollection of concatenation, is probably proving perplexing to you, but stick with me as there is a connection.

As summer drew to a close and autumn then winter followed, we saw less of Wheat but still heard him called. Then one day towards the end of the year, my husband Joe saw a small white cat in our garden and concluded that another kitten had moved into the locality. He saw it a few times but neither Lisa nor I had that pleasure – until one day in early spring when I noticed a white cat in our neighbour’s garden.

As I called Joe, he came to the window and immediately said, “There are two of them!” and so there were – both white, one in our garden and one next door, each looking at our neighbour’s compost bin. Suddenly Wheat emerged from the bin, causing us much amusement. He jumped down and sauntered off, followed by both white kittens. When they walked away, we could see their markings – one almost entirely white, with a dark tail (which quite honestly looked like an afterthought!) and the other with dark stripey patches on one side and a grey and slightly striped tail with white circles in the middle. Both white cats bore stripey patches on their heads – obviously twins.

Not too long after this, Lisa heard some names being called, including Wheat. At first she couldn’t make out what was being said but it appeared that the three cats lived together and their owner was calling them in. After this, the calling in of the cats became more frequent – two or three times a day – and Lisa reckoned that their owner was calling “Squawklout, Squawklout, Wheat!” These names sounded bizarre, and we wondered if they could be from a foreign language or perhaps not names at all but something loosely translated as “dinner’s ready”. As the weather improved and when our kitchen window was open, it sounded more like “Squawklet” than “Squawklout” but still as unlikely, and why did two of them appear to have the same name? The mystery deepened! Summer arrived and Lisa went away for a few days. Joe and I were in our back garden when we heard the cats being called quite clearly – to us it sounded like “Squawklet, Warshed, Wheat”. On her return, and the next time she heard the call, Lisa agreed that it did sound like that combination of names but what exactly their owner was calling was still not obvious.

Soon afterwards, we renamed the two white cats to differentiate between them when discussing them between ourselves: Plain for the mostly white one and Patterned for the one with the patches. These seemed more descriptive than Squawklet and Warshed, but we kept with Wheat as we had got used to hearing that name over the months. To add to the confusion, another cat began visiting the area and seemed to be a sibling of the white cats, but this one was much more striped across the back – in fact, had the appearance of wearing a saddle – though in all other aspects looked like the original two. The newcomer apparently lived elsewhere but was obviously a neighbour, and we concluded that the cat was almost certainly pregnant. We called her Striped, though had no indication of her actual name. Lisa reckoned that the four of them represented the evolution of the striped cat – from mostly plain white, via slightly patterned with stripey patches, then more predominantly striped and white, to completely striped. I view this as a concatenation – a chain of events into which cats have definitely entered – perhaps even a cat nation in the making!

Plain

Patterned

© Chasqui Penguin, 2022

Twitter: @ChasquiPenguin