Jemma [5]

Beryl says: Jemma is one of my Maine Coon queens and she came to me from my friend Kaeren's cattery Kagoza Maine Coons. Jemma was always going to be a typical "naughty tortie." She started at about eight weeks of age, when she managed to force open the window of Kaeren's first floor kitten room -- and fall out! Luckily Kaeren's husband Gordon saw it happen (and swears she bounced!) so she was rushed to the vets immediately where she got away with just a couple of bruises and, presumably, losing one of her nine lives.

Jemma came home with me at three months of age. Maybe it's a good thing my flat is on the ground floor! She may not have any high windows to fall out of, but she is into, under, over and around absolutely everything! She loves to unroll the loo roll (not shred it, just unroll it and leave it in a pile on the floor) and for a long time she refused to acknowledge the word "no."

Possibly her most dramatic incident has to do with her love of unsweetened black coffee. Yes, a cat that likes black coffee! Any chance she gets she'll lick the dregs of my morning cup, and I've had more than one argument with her about who gets to drink from the cup before it's down to the dregs! Anyway, on this one occasion I had to leave the house briefly when I'd just made a cup and it was too hot to drink, so without thinking I just left it ... and when I came back, more than an inch had gone from the now-cold cup, and World War II was happening in the study! I found my stud boy Jinks having to defend himself from a somewhat hysterical and overly caffeinated Jemma (which he did without any return blows -- he's too much of a gentleman to hit her back).

Otherwise, she has the cutest squeak she uses to say 'hi' the moment she realises you're looking at her, talks to herself in MC trills when playing (which she still does as an adult), and as a kitten she used the most appalling Siamese-type yell to say "I can't see you - where are you?!!" if she woke up alone and couldn't see me.

All in all, Jemma was the usual, adorable, maniacal ideal of a Maine Coon kitten, with tortie-tude thrown in, and is now just about the same but bigger! Jemma is also a show cat and she's won many awards over the last several years.