A true tale of a VERY loyal and brave cat named "Blue".

“BLUE”

My father used to be a stevedore and he came home one night in May of 1940 during WW2 with a beautiful blue Persian kitten that he had found abandoned in the hold the ship. My father said the mother of the kitten must have been killed during a bombing raid.
My mother had an instant bond with that kitten and “Blue” as we named him was my mother’s shadow. He grew into a beautiful blue Persian and was extremely proud of his tail and thick coat. He spent many hours cleaning himself.
When the blitz started and well before the siren wailed out its warning he used to stand clawing at the side of the door. It was his way of warning us that he could hear enemy war planes in the distance. Uncanny but perfectly true. It gave us time to get our belongings together and get down the Anderson shelter.
“Blue” had been hit by shrapnel about three times but my mother nursed him back to life each time and she always shared her food with him although we were rationed.
As time went on after being bombed out twice during the London Blitz, me with my brother and mother were evacuated to a town in the Midlands. “Blue” had to stay behind with my father and sister until we got a place of our own in this new town that we had gone to live in for safety. My sister was over 17 so she was too old to be evacuated under the government scheme.

When we did finally get a house my dad and sister brought “Blue” to live with us. It was then that my father told us that “Blue” had saved his and my sister's life because a direct hit bombed what was left of the house and it buried my father and sister alive.
They were trapped for many hours but “Blue” wriggled away from them and somehow found a way through all the bricks and mortar that lay on top of the Anderson shelter and his continuous meowing and clawing at the debris finally brought the firemen to the spot where dad and my sister were still trapped.
We never knew anything about this until “Blue” was in my mothers arms. We were SO proud of him and he was over the moon to be back with his beloved mistress, my mother. His purring was so loud it sounded as though he was singing to himself.
Our joy at “Blue” being with us once again lasted for two weeks because the neighbour that we lived against was anti cat and he put poison down which tempted “Blue.”
My mother tried everything to help save him but he died in agony in my mother's arms. It was just two weeks after surviving all the horrors of the blitz and saving two lives. I can still see the devastation on my mothers face as she had her rosary in her hand saying a prayer for “Blue.”
The tears that were shed over our beloved “Blue” could have filled a lake. Unfortunately my mother could not prove who had done this awful thing.

To think “Blue” had gone all through the London Blitz to die the way he did. I must add here that many animals were put to sleep when the war started in case they ran amok if anything happened to their owners. My mother would not let “Blue” be put to sleep.

Copyright---Maisie Walker--- all rights reserved.