It started with an advert in the local shop which, roughly translated, read 'Tabby cat - 2 months old - to give away'.

The word tabby always draws me but we waited another month to see if she found a home. After all, we already had five cats. By August no-one had claimed her so we rang the number and found that she was in the next village. We went there straight away and were welcomed by a very pleasant retired couple. It seemed that after being rejected by her mother, the kitten had lived most of her short life in the attic.

Monsieur went to fetch her and we were hooked immediately. While I cuddled her we were offered an aperitif and the information that she liked raw meat and bread and that she had a few fleas. A few! She was covered in them. They were even crawling over her face.

We brought her home and administered Frontline and then I began picking off the doped 'beasties' and dropping them in a bowl of water. There were 119 in the first session and, although I didn't count the next time, about the same again. The poor little creature didn't fully appreciate the attention but seemed to realise that it was alleviating her itches.

We named her Parsley and she began  life  in her new home with the rest of the family. Toby was the first to accept the new baby, the twins took longer, Holly decided that she definitely didn't like the newcomer and Kipper, who was ill, didn't take much notice. (Poor Kipper became so ill he had to be put to sleep a few months later).

Parsley was very nervous at first and hid behind the oven whenever we had a visitor but now she is willing to come and greet people and let them stroke her. She tries very hard to 'help' when I'm cooking and has to be banished to the conservatory and it's very difficult to refuse her titbits when a little white paw appears on the edge of the table during meals.

It's true that she loves bread - to chase round the room - but she can smell meat or fish from anywhere in the house and appears at my side whenever I open a bag containing freshly minced beef from the local shop.

She is the one most likely to come on my lap of an evening but now that the heating is on all the cats vie for positions on the radiators and she often gets the best seat on the one behind the armchair.

She also loves sitting on the computer, tail dangling down over the screen.