Did Colin Firth have a favorite cat when he was growing up?

 

Continuing my childhood saga with cats, the following will be my ode to Bibs.  After we'd moved from the farmhouse we rented in Lum, Michigan to the big city of Imlay City, Michigan (seven miles southeast of the farm), we had Mittens, son of Buffy for not quite a year.  He was mostly black and had white paws, not unlike Bibs on the left here.  Mittens moved on sometime in 1972 or early 1973.

Bibs moved in with us in the fall of 1973.  We saw him hanging around outside the TV room window and I am not certain who was the first to feed him, my mother, or my sister Beth Anne, but before long, Bibs had moved into the house and Mom and Dad let us keep him so long as we took care of his vet needs and litter box stuff.  My sister, Beth Anne took on all this responsibility.  She had a job at the local store similar to the "Dairy Queen" and she paid for Bibs to become altered, that is neutered. In doing so this robbed Bibs of his wandering habits (known to most unaltered male cats) and he was happy to be inside our house every night.

Bibs stayed with us from late 1973 or very early 1974 until he passed in April 1981.  He was a typical housecat who enjoyed going outdoors and then coming back in.  We were his door openers, when he wanted out, he would roll over in front of the kitchen door to the landing (leading outside) or before the front door.  His favorite place in the house was in the dining room, which was the most central room in the house, meaning that you had to pass through the dining room to go to the kitchen or to get to the upstairs.  Bibs would lie under the dining room table which was in the center of the dining room and sleep there for hours, or if not sleeping, he would just keep an eye on the house.

My parents didn't like cats on the furniture and neither did I.  But with Bibs, I could seldom refuse him anything.  Here you see him on my bed with some of my sister Jennifer's and my stuff animal toys.  He let us doing anything to him normally.  Jennifer and I would put great barriers from the TV room to the dining room and get Bibs to jumb the barrier which he did skillfully.


Bibs was an excellent hunter.  He would catch rabbits and birds, and was most especially lethal with bats.  We lived with bats in our house in Imlay City for years.  Sometimes we would be lazy and put Bibs to bed in the garage at night, and Bibs was so clever that he could raise the garage door (that is open it) to go outside and the morning he would often leave 2 to 3 bats on the door mat for us to discover.  I can't recall why we would put Bibs in the garage at night because when you think about it, he was kept away from his food, water, and litterbox.  And with his opening the garage door to exit the garage, this could probably be how bats entered the house, going through the rafters in the garage and then into the house. We were really stupid now that I recall and write this. 

Getting back to Bibs' skills as a hunter, one time I moved a chair in the living room and found a dessicated mouse (very small) under the chair.  I never told Mom about this, just removed it, dry heaving all the way to the garbage.  Beth Anne usually got stuck with cleaning out Bibs' litterbox and picking up the dead bats in the morning.  I, myself, had to remove the bat carcasses, but I don't remember swiping out his litterbox.  I wonder why Dad didn't get rid of the dead bats on the mat like he had with the dead mice in Lum when I was a child?  I guess it was a chore for us kids to do if we wanted to keep Bibs.

Bibs had other stuff he could do.  He could open doors that were not securely latched.  He'd reach under the door with his paw and pull until the door opened and he was free.  He loved cheese.  We would go to the fridgerator and open the aluminum door and if he heard the sound of plastic wrap unpealing, he would come running to the kitchen.  We could get him to beg for a scrap of cheese, begging like a dog and he was not too proud to get his cheese.

Bibs was also very tolerant of us when we introduced other pets into the household.  He'd be standoffish at first (going under the kitchen floorboards in the basement and howling his displeasure), but he'd come around and accept changes.  The first animal to disturb the sanctity of Bibs' home was my grandmother's horrible dog, Spunky.  After Bibs calmed down with the wretched dog in the house, he would come and spook Spunky in the nighttime when we were all in the TV room by coming out of the dark and stretching a long front black paw, with claws extended, around the corner of the door when Spunky would be lying down and then withdraw it very fast and this would set off Spunky on  a barking binge.

Here you see Bibs patiently waiting to be let back inside the house, what you can barely makeout in the photo is our German Shepherd Kinder, the last pet that Bibs was forced to share his Humans with.  Kinder, of course was many times bigger than Bibs, even as a puppy (the aforementioned Spunky was only a tad bit larger than Bibs).  Kinder loved to chase Bibs, loved to clean out Bibs' litterbox and food dish.  We were forced to find an alternate place for Bibs to eat his food, hidden by the keen smelling nose of Kinder, and we were forced to put a cardboard cover on top of the litterbox. 

Bibs was an exceptionally accomodating cat.  He lived with us for 8 years, dying in the spring of 1981.  I was away when this occurred.  My parents had given me their car and I and my roommate had driven to Bronson, Michigan for a weekend at her grandparents cottage.  Jennifer was at Michigan State University.  Mom and Dad were in Puerto Rico, leaving Susan and Beth Anne at home when Bibs became ill and when the Vet said that his heart was enlarging, Susan and Beth Anne did what was necessary to put Bibs at ease and ended his life in April 1981.  I knew nothing of this because of I was gone and when I returned to Oakland University, my other roommate, Susan told me the sad story how my sisters, Susan and Beth Anne had called, trying to reach me.  Terrible time leaning of Bibs' dying.  He was the last cat my parents ever had, and clearly, Bibs, as a cat, was a tough cat for other felines to follow in his paws.

Last night I watched Colin Firth in the 2003 film "Hope springs."  It was okay, of course he did an excellent job in his character.  After this I put in "The last legion," with Colin Firth which came out in 2007, I think.  A film that leaves a better resonance with me for an overall good film.  "Hope springs" is okay.