Bonkers Betty Illustrations

Hello you! How the devil are you?

Here at Bonkers Betty Towers, we're enjoying the longer days and warmer weather. After a year of not wanting to go outside (possibly for fear of forever being banished to the shed whence she came?) Betty recently decided she'd quite like a look around the garden.

Contrary to my expectations, she didn't ninja her way through the flowers, hissing cross-eyed at everything that moved. Instead, she took a slow but steady constitutional, miaowing her way around the plants, giving constant feedback on what she thought of it all. She was out there... wait for it, people... a whole five minutes before deciding she'd had enough.

She came in looking like she'd conquered a medium-sized mountain rather than a very small back-garden.

In celebration of the fact that Betty has been part of the family for a year now (where does the time go?) I sat down today and began to create a few pictures of the kind of shenanigans she gets up to. She makes me laugh constantly, and I thought you might like to see how she spends her days here at The Shire.

One of the things Betty spends a lot of time doing is peeping.

She likes to hide under and behind things and watch.  For a very long time.

Still. Silent. Marginally deadly in a small and fluffy way.

She is the Master of a game I've coined "Hide But Don't Bother Coming To Seek Me".  A modern Betty twist on an old classic.

Put Betty in any room and within seconds she will have sussed out the best places from which to observe her unwitting victims (that would be me, Eric and Ernie).  She is a Ninja to the tip of every whisker.

If you don't believe me take a look at this...

If that doesn't get you quaking in your boots and chewing your fingers to nubbins with fear, then, frankly, I don't know what will.

I'll be back soon with more pictures of Betty's bonkersness.

Purr,

♥

All About Betty

Betty, aka Miss Betty, or Her Royal Stroppiness, came storming into my life at the beginning of May this year.

I was in the kitchen when I thought I saw a kitten in my garden.  Then two more. Being of an age where "readers" have become something I wear, not listen to, I got my glasses and squinted out into the evening gloom.

This is what I saw...

A week later they were back again...

According to neighbours, Mum-cat had belonged to people who lived a couple of streets away, but they had moved away and left her behind.

At that time, I had no idea that they probably stole away under cover of darkness, purposefully not telling Betty where they were going.  It was probably the kindest decision they could have made for themselves.

But I was an unwitting fool.  Totally unaware of the force of nature that is Bonkers Betty.

I saw a teeny, tiny black cat with three teeny, tiny kittens.  Oh, the naivety.

At this time, Betty had apparently been living in my shed for a couple of years. Two thoughts went through my head when I found this out.

1. I'd be rubbish on Crimewatch.

2. How had she survived through the winters?

Each day, I put food out for mum and her kittens.

With the help of the RSPCA and a local animal welfare charity, homes were found for all three kittens.

No-one wanted Mum.

Perhaps they had met her before, or her reputation had preceded her on the cat-lovers' grapevine.  I was blissfully unaware.

So now I have an extra cat.

A Betty.

Here she is...

She is small, feisty, chatty, thinks woolly blankets are the best invention ever, and loves pink.

Kind of like me, but in miniature.

P.S. For more info about Betty's journey from "homeless single parent" to "ridiculously adored queen of all she surveys" take a peek at her About Betty page.  The link is at the top of her blog.