sister, belted across to me, and sat studying me with eyes of the most vivid blue I have ever seen, even in a Siamese. Then, loudly encouraged by Sinbad to 'Go on, then! Go on!' (it was his favourite remark, the breeder told me), the kitten climbed my leg, sat on my lap and peered into my face, and I knew that he was mine.
  I brought him home with me and introduced him to Tani who spat at him as a matter of principle, walked past as if he was of no consequence at all and completely ignored him after that. He ignored her, too. He didn't hide from her, as she had done with Saska. Kittens brought up by a parrot called Sinbad obviously knew no fear, and he strutted round the cottage as if he were a pirate kitten wearing an invisible bandana and cutlass. He sealed the resemblance a morning or two later when he met up with one of the village postmen.
  He was a hefty young man with a big black beard, a gold hoop in one ear and riotous black curls on which he never wore his postman's hat. Altogether his appearance was quite intimidating and he didn't have much to say to people â just handed them their letters or put them through the box. On this particular morning his red van arrived while I was in the top garden with the kitten, and, as I ran down the path past the cottage to collect the mail, the kitten â I'd decided to call him Saphra as he was the son of Sapphire, but he'd already acquired the much more fitting name of the Menace â dashed ahead of me and round the corner into the yard with a swoosh. My first thought was to hope that the postman wouldn't frighten him. My second was that meeting up with Blackbeard might teach him not to rush to greet people he didn't know. I rounded the corner at a gallop myself to a sight I could hardly credit, the postman was on his knees, my letters dumped anyhow on the paving stones, and the Menace was standing on his hind legs with his front paws on the postman's chest. The two of them looked at each other admiringly. 'Like to come home with me? asked the postman. He wouldn't mind. Could he ride in the Van? enquired Saph.
  It certainly didn't make him more careful about meeting people. The following Sunday Louisa came to see him. Dee, my cousin who usually brings her out, was away on holiday, so I drove into Bristol to fetch her. When we got to the cottage we came in by the back , so that we could use the kitchen as a Davy escape hatch, closing each door behind us in as we went through to the sitting-room.
  By this time the kitten and Tani were the greatest of friends. She'd missed Saska; Saphra, by his very nature, was completely bomb-proof; and they'd accepted each other more quickly than I'd ever known cats do before. So I'd left them together in the room, with the stairs and hall to play in and the hall door shut to safeguard the sitting-rooÂm ornaments â and when I opened it wide, said 'Here he is â the Menace', he entered, not as a kitten darting through with fun in mind, but as the Head of the Household, advancing, small spike tail raised like a personal standard, with complete insousiance to meet his guest.
  Tani was nowhere in sight, but I knew where she was. Upstairs, on the far side of the bed, sitting on her usual act of hiding under the valance in case the kidnappers had come to carry her off. He, however, marched down the middle of the room like royalty progressing along a red carpet, straight up to Louisa who, tearful with delight, fell on her knees to hug him. 'Oh, the little darling!' she said.
  A good many people fell on their knees and called him darling when they met him for the first time. They didn't know what he was like behind the scenes. On his first day at the cottage he'd climbed the bureau by hauling himself up its carved front by his claws, knocked a wooden statue of a prancing stallion off the top so that one of its legs came off, and knocked over a china model of a Breton spinning woman so
  I brought him home with me and introduced him to Tani who spat at him as a matter of principle, walked past as if he was of no consequence at all and completely ignored him after that. He ignored her, too. He didn't hide from her, as she had done with Saska. Kittens brought up by a parrot called Sinbad obviously knew no fear, and he strutted round the cottage as if he were a pirate kitten wearing an invisible bandana and cutlass. He sealed the resemblance a morning or two later when he met up with one of the village postmen.
  He was a hefty young man with a big black beard, a gold hoop in one ear and riotous black curls on which he never wore his postman's hat. Altogether his appearance was quite intimidating and he didn't have much to say to people â just handed them their letters or put them through the box. On this particular morning his red van arrived while I was in the top garden with the kitten, and, as I ran down the path past the cottage to collect the mail, the kitten â I'd decided to call him Saphra as he was the son of Sapphire, but he'd already acquired the much more fitting name of the Menace â dashed ahead of me and round the corner into the yard with a swoosh. My first thought was to hope that the postman wouldn't frighten him. My second was that meeting up with Blackbeard might teach him not to rush to greet people he didn't know. I rounded the corner at a gallop myself to a sight I could hardly credit, the postman was on his knees, my letters dumped anyhow on the paving stones, and the Menace was standing on his hind legs with his front paws on the postman's chest. The two of them looked at each other admiringly. 'Like to come home with me? asked the postman. He wouldn't mind. Could he ride in the Van? enquired Saph.
  It certainly didn't make him more careful about meeting people. The following Sunday Louisa came to see him. Dee, my cousin who usually brings her out, was away on holiday, so I drove into Bristol to fetch her. When we got to the cottage we came in by the back , so that we could use the kitchen as a Davy escape hatch, closing each door behind us in as we went through to the sitting-room.
  By this time the kitten and Tani were the greatest of friends. She'd missed Saska; Saphra, by his very nature, was completely bomb-proof; and they'd accepted each other more quickly than I'd ever known cats do before. So I'd left them together in the room, with the stairs and hall to play in and the hall door shut to safeguard the sitting-rooÂm ornaments â and when I opened it wide, said 'Here he is â the Menace', he entered, not as a kitten darting through with fun in mind, but as the Head of the Household, advancing, small spike tail raised like a personal standard, with complete insousiance to meet his guest.
  Tani was nowhere in sight, but I knew where she was. Upstairs, on the far side of the bed, sitting on her usual act of hiding under the valance in case the kidnappers had come to carry her off. He, however, marched down the middle of the room like royalty progressing along a red carpet, straight up to Louisa who, tearful with delight, fell on her knees to hug him. 'Oh, the little darling!' she said.
  A good many people fell on their knees and called him darling when they met him for the first time. They didn't know what he was like behind the scenes. On his first day at the cottage he'd climbed the bureau by hauling himself up its carved front by his claws, knocked a wooden statue of a prancing stallion off the top so that one of its legs came off, and knocked over a china model of a Breton spinning woman so
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