A tribute to my beloved Pinker Pinker

It was the morning of 22 October 2011, 8.30 to be exact.  I was sitting in front of the TV and the human was looking at me strangely.  "No, surely not," she thought to herself.

It was Cox Plate day - the one day on the racing calendar that my household looks forward to the most.  The Melbourne Cup may be the race that stops a nation, but the Cox Plate is the event that racing purists hold most dear.  Only the very best horses descend upon Moonee Valley to contest the weight-for-age championship of Australasia.  Phar Lap, Tulloch, Tobin Bronze, Gunsynd, Kingston Town, Saintly, Might And Power - all of these champions have etched their names into Cox Plate history.  The human's favourite horses So You Think and Sunline each won the race twice.  And my favourite horse was about to join that prestigious honour roll.

There has been a long history in my house of the human picking a horse for me to cheer for.  Usually it is the horse with the most girlie name in the field.  So when Pinker Pinker came along, the human decided for me that she would be my favourite horse.  If I happened to walk into the room before one of her races I would be met with a barrage of laughs and comments.  "Come to watch Pinker Pinker?" the human would say.  I would just glare back at her.

After a while the human noticed a very curious coincidence - I would only turn up if Pinker Pinker was going to win.  I was there to cheer when she took out the Let's Elope Stakes, but  I was missing in action when she was beaten in the Epsom.  I was glued to the TV when she won the Angus Armanasco Stakes, while I couldn't bear to watch when she failed in AJC Oaks.

So when I was sitting in my favourite chair in front of the TV on Cox Plate morning, the human would not let herself believe that my power of prediction could possibly be right again.  Pinker Pinker was one of the outsiders and there was talk in some quarters that she didn't even deserve to be in the race.  But I knew better, and I wasn't moving for anything!

I waited there for eight hours and finally it was starting time.  Pinker Pinker was taken back in the field after barrier rise  and there she stayed until making the turn for home.  Then the miraculous happened.  The field fanned approaching the straight and the most beautiful gap appeared.  It was just like Moses and the parting of the Red Sea!  Saving valuable ground, Pinker Pinker dashed through and grabbed the lead.  With the human (the armchair jockey) slapping her formguide like a fool, nothing got near Pinker Pinker in the run to the line and she ran in an easy winner.

Amidst the tears, cheers and accolades from the human, I calmly left the room.  I momentarily looked back over my shoulder.  "See, I told you she would win."

My kitten video

Here is a video of my first few weeks in my new home.  Sure, it's not a chateau in France with Brangelina but I suppose it will do.

Just a word of warning, this is a large video file so I would suggest that you watch it on a device on which you have plenty of data.

In the beginning...

It can be said that the day a man is born will shape his personality forever.  You need to look no further than me for proof of this.  Few would miss the irony in the circumstances of my birth.  For when this meek black kitten entered the world on April Fool's Day, it was no laughing matter.

It was a night that no respectable kitty would venture out on.  The teeming rain was as hostile as the world that I was about to be born into.  I first took breath on that dark and gloomy night in a gutter on the wrong side of town.  My mother was just another crack ho who didn't have any idea who my father was.  Sadly, my mother had no interest in raising me.  As soon as she had delivered me she handed me off to a baby broker in return for a carton of Winnie Blues and a six-pack.

Where I ended up next will probably make some of my friends hate me.  That's right - I took up residence at the local pet shop.  It wasn't that bad really.  I had three square meals a day and I had lots of new friends to talk to, not that I remember many of them now.  They told me about a magical couple named Brangelina who would adopt a kitten from every country in the world.  It was said that they provide their kitties with an all-you-can eat buffet and you could do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.  How I prayed that I would be adopted by Brangelina.

Days went by and I sat there waiting.  I waited and I waited, and then I waited some more.  Some of my friends left and some new friends arrived.  And still I waited.  Then, when I least expected it, a hand reached into my cage and lifted me up.  At first I was excited - Brangelina had finally come to take me home - but then my eyes adjusted to the reality of the situation.  This was not Brad or Angelina who was cradling me in her arms.  This was a mere mortal! 

"Noooo!!!" I cried as I shoved into a box and carried out of the pet shop that I had called home.  "What if Brangelina come to pick me up and I am not here?"  But no one listened as I was bundled into a car for the long ride to my new furever home.  "Goodbye," I screamed out to my friends.  "I will never forget you."  I tried to put on a brave face, but inside I feared what would happen to me.  Would I be happy or was this the cruelest April Fool's Day joke of all time?

Welcome to my blog!

Hello!  *waves paw*  It's me - Leroy!  I be a cat who be on Twitter (@LeroyBlackCat) and I have a few videos on the Yous Yube, and now I have this blog!  Cos I be 15 years old I not do much that's exciting anymore, so my blog gonna be some stories about the life that I have led so far.  I hope that you enjoy it!