Now living without that person, or the books, or the cats really would be a big deal.
The person with Down's syndrome is my son Phillip, known as Pip, who is now 26 years old. He and I share a house with three cats only one of which is legit as the other two inveigled their way in: install a cat flap and they will come. This lovely cat is Billie who started out as Billy, named from the old song Charming Billy which we have sung by Pete Seeger: Where have you been, Billy boy, Billy boy? Where have you been charming Billy? Then Billy came into season, had the operation and turned into Billie. She's still charming though.
She came into our lives two years ago, spending a month whisking, or whiskering, through the house, with me catching tantalising glimpses of a tiny kitten with enormous ears. I'd open doors and find her behind them, she'd dash through a room ahead of me and hide. It was a little like sharing a house with a feline Borrower. Than after a month or so she started to show herself, jostling to be fed with the other cats, and bit by bit by bit she was there, part of our idiosyncratic household. Charming Billie. We don't know where she came from or how she got here, but we're very glad she came.
