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 of the ship.

My mother had an instant bond with that kitten and Blue as we named him was my mothers 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 we 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.

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 48 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.  I still weep about it now.

To think he had gone all through that to die the way he did. I must add here that many animals were put to sleep when the war started.  My mother would not let Blue be put to sleep.