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Everybody who knows me, knows that no animal was more important to me, than Caspian.

Caspian was a CreamPoint Colourpoint Persian, and the King of all my cats.

In fact, he was really HRH King Caspian I of England !

(Or so we liked to think.)

THIS IS THE STORY OF CASPIAN AND HIS FAMILY.

In the beginning, there was BLONDIE.

Here she is aged 3 months.

Blondie was my first pedigree cat and my best friend.

For a long time she was the only company I had. I was new in this country,

didn't really know anybody, and my husband worked long hours.

I couldn't keep a dog as we lived in a flat where no pets were allowed,

and I missed my dog that I had left behind in Sweden.

I had wanted a Persian for years, and I knew exactly what I wanted:

A Cream Colourpoint.

Blondie was 12 weeks old when she moved in, and she instantly became my best friend.

She was "only" a pet and not a show cat, but to me she was the most beautiful cat ever.

A few weeks later, my husband came home with a rescued, orphaned Tabby moggy, Tippi.

Blondie hated her. She didn't want competition. She was the QUEEN.

I showed her she was still number one, and for the rest of her life she

KNEW nobody could threaten her position as top cat.

When Tippi got bitten by one of the pet rats I had,

Blondie got worried about her, and suddenly they became friends!

When Blondie was a couple of years old, I decided I wanted her to have kittens.

I wanted her to live on forever.

I asked her breeder, Mrs E. Martin of Birmingham, to make sure she didn't mind.

Blondie had never been meant as a breeding queen, after all.

And so Blondie was mated to BLUEY, or Champion Andella Blue Velvet, a handsome older gentleman

of a BluePoint Colourpoint, residing with Mrs C. Dent of Scunthorpe.

BLUEY'S SPECIAL STORY:

A few years after Blondie's and Bluey's meeting, Bluey died of old age.

The very same night that he had died, his breeder, a different lady to his owner,

saw a big BluePoint Colourpoint in her house.

It rubbed up against her legs and then disappeared.

This lady had no BluePoint inside her house.

She went to bed and told her husband "Bluey must be dead. He just came to say goodbye."

The next morning, she received a phonecall telling her that Bluey had passed away the previous night.

On the 29th of November 1989, Blondie's kittens were born.

She had been sleeping with me each night, and this morning she refused to let me leave the bedroom.

She knew her kittens were about to be born, and she wanted me there.

I watched and helped her three babies being born.

First to be born was Stumpy, a CreamPoint male -with just half a tail !

Here he is a few days old.

Second was Bella, a BlueCreamPoint female.

And last but not least, rather the biggest -CASPIAN.

A CreamPoint male weighing in at an enormous 135 g.

I've never since had such a big kitten be born.

Caspian got well and truly stuck halfway out, so I had to help pull him out.

For some reason, Caspian became my favourite from day one

-but I had decided to only keep a female kitten, not a male.

Blondie, the very proud mother.

The kittens always suckled from the same teat each time.

From the top; Bella, Caspian, Stumpy.

The kittens grew quickly.

Soon they were able to leave home.

Bella stayed with me. Caspian, to the right here, was sold to a family.

Stumpy went to live in Sweden.

Blondie didn't like the people who bought Caspian, and I should have taken her views into account.

But I didn't.

I tried to keep in touch with Caspian's new owners, but they didn't want to know.

Here is Bella aged 4 months.

Bella and Blondie.

Together they started my interest in breeding and showing pedigree cats.

Their pet names do, of course, form my prefix of BLONDBELLA.

CRESSI THE LIFESAVER:

Neither Blondie nor Bella were show quality cats, and so I decided I wanted a Colourpoint to show.

I bought Cheval Cressida, "Cressi", a female SealPoint from Val Robinson near Wakefield.

But before Cressi arrived home, in March 1991, both Blondie and Bella

had been mated. I wanted to continue the line by breeding from Bella,

and I wanted one more litter from Blondie (again with Bluey) as she had so loved being a mother.

But things went wrong.

Blondie was 5 weeks pregnant with 7 kittens when the kittens were found to all be dead inside her.

She had to have a caeasarian to remove the dead kittens,

and was spayed at the same time, to save her life.

Blondie lost all will to live.

I sat next to her in the bedroom for a week, never leaving the house.

I fed her whipped cream from my finger tips, all to make her eat SOMETHING.

But Blondie knew that her babies were gone, and she grieved.

Until the day that I introduced Cressi to her.

Cressi was 14 weeks old and fully weaned, but as soon as Blondie saw her she grabbed

hold of the kitten and started washing her.

Cressi struggled at first, then realised she was on to a good thing

-and started suckling Blondie.

Blondie got the light back into her eyes, started eating again,

and looked after Cressi as if she had been her own kitten.

She always washed Cressi's face extra carefully -she probably thought she was a

very dirty kitten with such a dark face !

Without a doubt, Cressi saved Blondie's life.

Bella gave birth to 3 kittens of her own, on the 4th of April 1991.

The kittens had to be born by caesarian, and I was there watching and helping the vet.

Two of the kittens took a long time to revive, but the third, Endora, cried the moment she

was born, and now, ten years later, she is still a vocal cat!

Here is Bella with Endora, who also is a BlueCream Colourpoint.

BELLA'S STORY:

When Endora was a year old, she herself was mated and got pregnant.

The sire was her own grandfather, Bluey.

Towards the end of Dora's pregnancy, Bella disappeared.

We took in a stray kitten that some children brought to the door,

and Bella must have sneaked out unseen.

Despite all our efforts, Bella was missing for 17 days.

One night she suddenly appeared outside the front door,

very dirty, hungry and flea ridden.

Bella was fed and bathed, and then as quickly as she could, she ran upstairs.

She sat down outside the bedroom door, asking to be let in.

Inside the bedroom was Endora with her own newborn kittens.

Somehow Bella knew that her grandchildren had been born,

and she wanted to see them.

Endora accepted no other cats near her babies, but she welcomed Bella.

Soon afterwards it was discovered that Bella had been in an accident whilst missing.

Her spine was injured, and despite the best possible veterinary care,

a month after her return she had to be put to sleep, aged only two and a half.

Dora's kittens were all named after Bella: Bellhop, Bellboy, Harebell and Bluebell.

Sadly only Bellhop lived to be adult, and he was neutered as there was a genetic problem

within the line. There were no more kittens ever to be descended from Blondie.

This is Bellhop when adult. He and Dora remained very close for as long

as Bellhop lived.

Endora

CASPIAN'S STORY:

Six years after Caspian had been sold, there was a phonecall from his new owners.

Their daughter, now 16, whom Caspian belonged to,

could no longer be bothered to look after her pet.

She was studying to become a veterinary nurse, yet was fed up with her own cat!

The family wondered if we would buy Caspian back.

Despite reservations about having to PAY for a six year old pet neuter,

OF COURSE Caspian was collected immediately.

I cried when I sold him and I cried when he came back home again. This time to STAY.

Caspian came complete with a badly matted coat, earmites,

and not having been vaccinated at all since he was a kitten.

He hated grooming forever after as he never had it done for so many years.

An early picture of Caspian after his return -having fallen asleep under a pile of laundry !

Blondie and Caspian knew each other the moment he returned home.

But Caspian never quite settled down.

He was used to being a single cat, left to his own devices.

He would not allow me to handle him, and he would never sit on my lap.

For a year Caspian stayed hidden behind the couch, seldom coming out.

Then Blondie died. She left me on the 5th of April 1997, only 9 years old.

Gone to be together with Bluey and Bella again,

later to be joined by Bellhop and Cressi.

This is a painting my friend Christina Carpenter made of her.

Blondie had been ill for a week, and during that time had been hospitalised at the vet's

for a couple of days. During her absence then, Caspian had behaved just as normal -

keeping out of the way.

Late in the evening after Blondie had died, we were watching a film on video.

The room was dark, and from the corner of my eye I noticed a CreamPoint cat

jump up onto the coffee table.

Just like Blondie did every evening, before jumping onto my lap.

I was about to call Blondie over to me, when I realised it could not be her.

It was Caspian.

I said "Come on then baby!" -just like I always said to Blondie.

Caspian jumed up onto my lap.

Settled down and started purring.

The next day, Caspian slept in Blondie's favourite places.

He ate her favourite foods.

He never hid behind the couch again.

He took over Blondie's entire personality.

It was as if Blondie had never died.

Caspian became Blondie.

Naturally, he also became top cat.

At 16 lbs of weight and with a lot of attitude, no other cat would stand up to Caspian.

Bellhop was Caspian's second in command -

and of course his half brother as well as great nephew.

If there ever was trouble, Bellhop would deal with the troublemaker.

Bellhop and Caspian were very close.

When Bellhop died, Caspian had to choose a successor.

There were no longer any direct descendants to Blondie,

other than Endora -but she is not leadership material apparently.

Caspian choose Vanilla Heart as his second in command.

He picked the kitten out when only a few months old,

and brought him up to be his most special friend.

I think that somehow Caspian KNEW that although not descended from Blondie,

Vanilla was his closest living male relative.

Vanilla's great grand father and Caspian's great grandfather were brothers.

Caspian didn't normally like kittens

-but when Vanilla became a dad, he loved all the kittens.

Here he is babysitting little Sandal.

He had been less happy when my third baby was born in January 2000.

Caspian was used to being the one and ONLY baby!

He eventually got used to Benjamin , and knew he was STILL my baby cat.

Caspian at Christmas, 2000.

He wasn't too happy about being dressed up as a reindeer.

Here he is in his favourite place in the window,

and winking to me.

In February of 2002, Caspian was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure (CRF).

He was taken very ill very suddenly, lost a lot of body weight, stopped eating and would only sleep.

He had lost interest in life and we prepared ourselves to say goodbye.

Our vet then recommended the new drug FORTEKOR (known as Lotensin in the US) for Caspian, and after just four days on this, we noticed a huge improvement.

Caspian started eating again, put on weight, and started behaving as normal again.

We thought; Long live the King.

MAYBE NOW YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY CASPIAN WAS SO SPECIAL TO ME.

CASPIAN, THE KING OF CATDOM.

Thank you for reading his story and for allowing time for all the photos to load.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ON THE 17TH OF SEPTEMBER 2002, CASPIAN LEFT THIS WORLD.

His kidneys were failing and he was not happy any more.

I told my vet that I wanted to do what was best for Caspian, not what was

best for me. Caspian was given sleep. I know I will meet him again one day.

In the meantime, he is back together again with his best friend Bellhop,

his mother Blondie, his step sister Cressi, his father Bluey and many more.

We miss him so much. He was a cat in a million. The King of Catdom.

Caspian's beautiful grave stone.

As Caspian had decided, Vanilla took over from the day Caspian died.

Vanilla spent the first day without Caspian sleeping in the exact same spot

where Caspian had spent his final day -the window.

Vanilla then took over Caspian's behaviour and habits, and became the new King.

Endora is the Queen, sharing his duties.

History has repeated itself. Read more on Vanilla's page.

Marianne Brett, Blondbella Cats