Thanks for all of your comments. I am missing her already. Schrodie is fast asleep on the settee, I'm not sure if he has noticed yet.
I think I was brought up by cats. In our family photograph album there is a picture of what looks like a hefty bald toddler being held in my mum's arms looking down at the ground frowning. I think I must have been looking down at one our cats.
Having two females, mother and daughter we used to have a constant supply of kittens which my mum and dad would have to try to find homes for. A lot different from today. They used to choose some odd places to have them, underneath some rhubarb, on top of a heap of coal in the coal shed and in the wooden shed. It was always nice to find them wherever they were, blind with large heads and what looked like a bit of shriveled up string dangling from their bellies.
Both of our cats had different ideas as to where they should be brought up. The daughter would bring them indoors and the older mother would take them back out again often passing one another with a kitten in their mouth.
so sorry 
