Portia Dodds

We first saw Portia when she was only 4 weeks old. She was a usual somali kitten, and she had the most beautifully marked face. She had 2 litter mates, one was a sorrel somali, and the other was a silver somali, but she was the one we decided to buy. We bought her from a breeder of somalis in Sunderland.
We liked the name 'Portia' because we had watched an advert on tv where a cat gets all the cream, and it says to the other cat 'Hard cheese, Portia'!
We picked her up when she was 12 weeks old. When she first saw our 2 cats Kirk and Chloe, she flattened her ears, and hissed at them, such a tiny spitfire, but they were scared of her!! However, after a few days she was having a great time chasing Chloe around the house as a new game.
When she was a kitten, she used to like to sleep next to your cheek, or under the covers next to your chest, or sometimes she would go to sleep lying on her back!
She was only 4 months old when she saw her first xmas tree, and she had fun playing with the baubles!
When she was 6 months old, we got a 2 month old white kitten from a shelter, whom we called Isis. Portia growled at her for a couple of days, then they invented a game where they used to take turns to jump on each other!
When she was 8 months old we got her spayed, but a week later she got a lump on her neck, and was very ill with an infection. She was so ill that the vet checked her for leukaemia and fiv. Luckily, the tests were negative, and she made a full recovery with a course of antibiotics.
Portia was a very laid back cat when she was an adult. Once we had my daughter's cats living upstairs for a while, and we kept them apart from mine in case of fighting, which would be the norm when a cat finds strange cats in their own home. However, Portia went into the room where my daughter's cats were living, discovered a bowl of cat food, and started to eat it. When she looked up to see 3 strange cats glaring back at her, she just continued to eat the food, totally unconcerned!
She loved food, and even though in the cat hierarchy in my home, she was not very dominant, she certainly was where food was concerned. Woe betide any cat that tried to get a tasty treat like prawns from her! They were her favourite.
She had a most unusual meow, when she meowed it sounded like she was saying 'ow', rather than 'meow'.
She was quite a clumsy cat who would walk along the wall unit, knocking ornaments down as she went on her way! She also once went running down my daughter's bed, in which my daughter was asleep, and ran across my daughter's face! This left a scar on her eyelid, which to this day is still a visible reminder of Portia's clumsiness!
She was a very happy cat, always pleased to see us. She used to 'swing' her hips in a funny little greeting, and instead of simply rubbing her head on objects as cats are apt to do when they are pleased to see you, she used to bash her head really hard ( or so it appeared ), on the corner of the kitchen units!
Portia was an indoor cat, but she used to love to lie in the sun on a foam mat, with the other cats and me in the summer. Once we did not realise that she had got out of the garden. We found her absolutely terrified, hiding in a bush, at the end of the street, with bits of twig in her long bushy tail!
Portia had gingivitis for most of her life, which meant that she had several operations over the years to clean her teeth, and remove the worst ones.
When she was a young cat we used to show her at cat shows over the country. She used to be unfazed by being in the car, and simply go to sleep. She got 3 premier certificates in 1996, and became a Premier at the Supreme Cat Show in Birmingham. She also went on the train with us when we entered her in the cat show at Olympia, London. She had to stay in her carrier on the train, and it was too large to fit under the seats, or in the aisle, so we had to place her and the carrier on the table in front of us! We were sharing this table with a man, who did not look too impressed to see a cat looking at him! He soon went and sat somewhere else! Not a cat lover, I guess! Portia kept us awake most of that night in our hotel room, as she kept going in and out of our beds, and 'making bread' on our arms!
Her best friend when she was a kitten was Isis, and when she was an adult her best friends were Kirk and Chloe. Kirk died in 2007, and Chloe in 2009, and both have memorials on this site.
When she was under anaesthetic for another dental procedure when she was 9 years old, I received a phone call from the vets that every pet owner dreads. The vet had discovered that she had throat cancer. I went down to give her one last kiss and cuddle while she was still under. It would not have been fair on her to let her come round again, as it must have been really uncomfortable for her, having cancer in her throat, though she had never given any sign of distress. She had been eating and drinking as normal.
I had her individually cremated, and I still have her ashes in a special box with her photo in it, under my bed.