Not just animals.

People who say animals are just that - animals - don't know what they are talking about. Every animal I have ever had or looked after for someone else has had one characteristic which they share with humans. They have personality.

I now have three cats. Regular bloggers will remember that one of my moggies, the lovely Phantom, had to be put to sleep a while back as she was very sick. So now I have three - all moggies, all officially domestic shorthairs, and all different.

Smudge is now boss cat. She is the oldest, the biggest and the most aggressive. She uses her size and sheer bulk to intimidate the others and take the lion's share of the food (partly why she is such a porker) and the best cushion. She is a Daddy's girl, and will only sit on The Hubby's lap unless he is out and she is desperate. She is incredibly greedy and will move like greased lightening when she hears a tin of tuna being opened or the cat treat bag being rustled. She is more trouble than all the others put together, and always has been. On the plus side, she can be very affectionate and defends her territory with vigour. A few months ago next door's Dalmation, the most incredibly stupid dog I have ever come across, got into our garden and Smudge was out there, squaring up to it with a tail like a loo brush and lashing out with front paws, claws distended, until it retreated with its tail between its legs.

Daisy is the beauty queen of the bunch, and boy, does she know it! Although officially a shorthair, she has long tortoiseshell hair and the most beautiful face of any cat I have ever known. As a kitten, she was the sort of animal that appears in photos on the front of chocolate boxes. She is incredibly affectionate and the Mummy's girl of the bunch, not deigning to sit on anyone else even if I am absent. But beauty, as they say, is only skin deep and the lovely Daisy has some dirty habits. If the weather is inclement, she will pee up anything left incautiously at floor level in the back lobby (a sort of outside storage area) rather than go outside and she is a nasty bully, always wanting what one of the others has and persisting until she triumphs. Daisy suffers from the double vices of avarice and vanity!

Hermione is the cutie. The smallest, she is totally black and was so named as a witch's cat after Hermione Grainger in the Harry Potter films. Ill as a kitten, we thought she wasn't growing properly and although eventually she did, she is tiny compared to the other two. She is never greedy, never pushy and the most affectionate of the bunch with no hidden motive or agenda. She is adorable and sweet with huge green eyes which see into your soul.

These three animals, and also poor Phantom who was like a twitchy maiden aunt, are individuals and it is a mistake to not recognise them as such. They are members of my family with all the quirks and foibles that our children also have. That's why we love them, and they add a dimension to our lives which makes us richer and more rounded people. To dismiss them as 'just animals' is a mistake we should never make.