Josefina the Cat

Josefina sleeping, 1977. The lamb is 28 cms long.

Josefina and me, summer 1991

This was my cat Josefina. I bought her from a neighbor in 1977 when she was bout 2-3 weeks old. She was really tiny then. The height up to the lamp below is 26 cms, the lamb below is 28 cms long. She got bigger though. Really big and fat. When she was at her largest size, she weighed around 10 kgs.

The first 2 years of her life she didn't know how to mjauu. That she learned the first time she stayed at a cat hostel when we went abroad. And did she learn it... She became a very talkative cat from then on.

She always had a great appetite and ate just about anything she could get hold of. She didn't like fish though until at a rather advanced age. And never milk. Just water. And meat. And Tunisian tchacktchuka (a very spicy North African vegetarian dish with eggs in). Minced meat (raw) was her favorite. And of course cat food from the tin and the dried variety.

The first years of her life she lived at the 7th floor and just occasionally went further out than the balcony (where she happily studied all the birds flying by and once even caught one which she hid under our bed). Going out and having to touch grass and earth – not to mention snow – was really not anything she liked.

When we moved to a house on the ground when she was about 7 years old, she did not go out the first half year. It was just too scary. The first time she dared to venture outside (the first spring in the house), she happened to meet our neighbors dog (a cocker spaniel). Who attacked and chase her into our kitchen. There was a great fight under the kitchen table. It then took another half a year till she dared go outside again. She got used to it though and ventured outside more and more. The only way to get her in again was to go out with a package of dried cat food and wave that so she heard the content. Then she came running.

Josefina loved to climb trees but never managed to get down again.

Once, when she was around 12 years, she came in between the neighbors dog (a cocker spaniel) and another visiting dog (a Grand Danois) and fled up the nearest tree to get away. It just happened to be a very high pine tree. She didn't stop till she reached the first pair of boughs. We had to call the fire brigade to get her down again. She just sat up there, in the pine tree, which grew on a mountain, and miaueeed for hours. We ware afraid she would fall down as she was a fat, old and very clumsy cat. When she was brought down by the fire brigade, she scratched her rescuer.

She lived to be 15 years old. She died of old age and bad liver in April 1992. I still miss her. She was part family for 15 years. That's a long time for a cat.

Josefina, 1979. How did I get up here? Please help me come down...

Josefina sleeping in a bag, 1979. Why did you wake me?