Thimphu was born at Calgary in the spring of 1998 and came to live here in the autumn of that year. She died this weekend, aged 16+, while we were away in London.
When she first came to live here, we kept her in for a few days in the front porch. She escaped after 2 nights and we were worried we would never see her again. Then a few days later she returned. And never left again, though she did often disappear for days at a time.
Thimphu was the farm cat who would sit on the window sill and meow for food, as if she was never fed. Cheekily, she took to sitting on the cottage window sills, doing her own version of Six Dinner Sid - begging for scraps and titbits.
Most of the time, she and Pebble, the marmalade cat, (who died in the spring aged 18) lived in the farm steading, sleeping on the removable sits from the blue van (very comfy). They jumped in and out through one of the slit vents in the steading wall, coming and going as they pleased. In the summer we worried about the survival of the swallow chicks but whatever defences we put up to protect the nests and keep the cats away failed and, regretfully, there were always feathers on the floor.
Probably one of Thimphu's most famous escapades was when she climbed in the Studio kitchen window and started eating the roast beef from a wedding feast last July whilst the wedding was taking place on Calgary beach... the bride and groom thankfully took it all in their stride!
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Thimphu was a wonderful farm cat. We will all miss her. Except perhaps the swallows.