(Bad Billy photo will find a better one on the laptop later, this was taken about 3 years ago when the dye studio still lived in my house)
Billy woke me up at 6.30 yowling, I thought he must have caught some poor little fluffy thing and was announcing his triumphant return, but the more I woke the closer I could hear him, so I looked out of the bedroom (2nd floor) window. Billy was wedged into the honeysuckle just below the window.
Windows and doors only have one purpose for Billy, to make you constantly let him in, then out, then in, then out etc etc etc.
He obviously decided the window was open so he would go out and forgot or was just too stupid to realise he was on the top floor of the house.
Billy is a giant Maine Coon weighs over a stone, so the poor honeysuckle was bending badly, managed to wake up Fred to come and rescue him, imagining fire engines and ladders would be involved, but Fred being practical threw a shoe at him (I only thought they did that in films), amazingly Billy managed to get out of the honeysuckle quite easily after that
And was then yowling to be let in - stupid cat why didn't he do that in the first place instead of wajking me up??
Phil wanted a Maine Coon for his 40th, he had read they were very intelligent and could be trained, maybe they are but not Billy.
At the age of 18 months he ran into the side of Phil's moving car and broke his jaw in 4 places, nice expensive trip to the vets (thank god for cat insurance!).
He made a full recovery and it didn't affect his beauty, although he does have a wonky smile and snores badly.
Billy can't jump from one work surface to another, nearly always misses, have watched him slide down the front of the fridge many times - :-)
Billy also finds it difficult to run through a door, walking is fine, but his judgement goes when he runs and again the times I have watched him run into a door are endless.
And he is such a bad bully, my poor Baby Erik is chased and sat on as often as Billy can get away with not being shouted at.
Baby Erik is a Norwegian Forest Cat and my 40th birthday present, he is so called as he sleeps in my arms like a baby, is not stupid, is very clever and the most bizarre cat I have ever met, but he is a whole new story.
In 2004 when the Dye Studio was beginning to dye wool and erupt into the knitting world, Phil had cancer (luckily it was caught very early, was all over and done with in about 6 weeks - thanks to his company's private medical insurance)
