Did your parents ever tell you a lie that you might have forgotten until say, aged 34? This is the story of Big Cat.
I had kind of forgotten about Big Cat, until I was de-cluttering the house in January, when I saw Sasha lying on the bed with Little Cat.
I had two toys that I absolutely LOVED growing up. They were Big Cat and Little Cat. (Like I have said before, the cat thing comes from my Granny.)
Now, Little Cat is that sad-looking thing spooning Sasha. A teeny tiny Little Cat that has survived life with me since 1982. Little Cat went EVERYWHERE with me, and escaped some near death experiences, including being thrown off a wharf, going in the hotel laundry and back, and many other things. But here she is, mid clean up, spooning Sasha in all her glory. So when I found her in the memory box, I decided I wanted to keep Little Cat, because she still sparks joy. (Now she has a new lease on life by peering at me from the cupboard.)
This photo reminded me, hey, wasn’t there a Big Cat as well? Indeed, there was. A big white, fluffy cat, called Big Cat.
I asked Mum the other day for photos. “Oh you were not that obsessed with Big Cat, there are no photos of you together”, she says.
I had a feeling she was wrong.
The other day I am at my parents and I pull out a random album from 1984.
Big Cat is everywhere. EVERYWHERE, (even in attendance at my sisters holy communion.)
What happened to such a keepsake that I obviously loved to death?
“Big Cat was TAKEN AWAY BY THE TOY FAIRY”, they announced one day when I woke up and she was gone. Because I was ‘too old’ apparently to take Big Cat around with me, who was losing fur and looking homeless. I was inconsolable. The “Toy Fairy”, (unlike the “Tooth Fairy” who GIVES YOU MONEY), was something my parents invented to take away old toys. This fucked up fairy replaced my beloved Big Cat with an inferior green frog.
Frogs just don’t cuddle. I never forgave them.
Perhaps to this day I might be trying to fill the hole that Big Cat left in my life?
Why did I go straight for the white one?
What do you reckon?
Did your parents ever make up fairies?
Do you make up fairies for your kids now?
Be warned of the impacts in later life!
Happy Sunday!
Ashleigh XXX