Fighting like cat and dog

During a recent family reunion John was given a photograph. It was probably taken early in the twentieth century and showed a middle-aged lady with a cat on her knee and a dog sharing her chair. When he drew my attention to it John said, 'This makes nonsense of the saying about fighting like cat and dog.' However, on examining the photograph more closely, we both decided we couldn't rule out the possibility that the cat and dog were studio props.

When I was a child we did have a cat and dog who were so friendly that, on winter evenings as they sat in front of the Aga cooker, the cat often licked the dog's ears. They had grown up together since Sooty arrived as a small black kitten around the time that Bran came as a young fox terrier pup.

When strange dogs had the temerity to invade our back yard it was Sooty who routed them. There were no cat-and-dog fights because dogs ten times her size were afraid of Sooty. At least that is how it is remembered in our family.

During her twenty four year life Sooty gave birth to several litters of kittens on a bed of straw in a wooden box in an outhouse. Bran had only to be asked, 'Show us your kittens,' and he went to the back door. As soon as it was opened he trotted straight to the outhouse and over to the wooden box, looking at Sooty and her family before turning to the human who had come to see them.