Hello.
My name is Amanda, and I live here in Oxford, very close to the river, in a beautiful flat which is, uh, the top, flat.
And I always joke and call it my penthouse flat.
Because I have a wonderful view overlooking the hills around Oxford and I can see as far as Boars Hi-, Boars Hill on a clear day.
And at the side.
Uh, view from my roof terrace balcony I can see the river, and watch the boats going by, and the college crews, uh, rowing up there.
And people punting in the summer too.
And, I also have my little pussy cat.
A little black and white cat who is the queen of the rooftops.
She was living semi-wild for a couple of years out on Grandpont nature park.
Which is immediately outside my flat.
And that is a, a beautiful, park which has been cultivated especially with wildflowers, and plants.
To encourage, wildlife and local butterf- butterflies_ to, um, encourage them, there.
And, um, she lived out there rough for a couple of years.
Because she was the runt of the litter.
Having been born in a flat beneath me.
And, um, the other cats there_ there were eight other cats chased her away.
And the poor little thing was living, as I say, semi-rough for two years.
And used to mew pathetically at any one going by.
And eventually, um, I became a real soft touch.
And she, adopted me and kept coming in for odd days.
And of course then, eighteen months ago, she came to stay permanently.
And, um, her name is called Poppy.
Like a flower, poppy.
That was the name she was given by the person who, um, had her originally.
And she's now, four years old.
She was four on the thirty-first of May.
And from being a really timid, nervous little cat, very scruffy with a poor coat, she's, now got the most beautiful glossy black and white coat.
And is so playful.
And becomes more and more "kittenish".
She plays with everything_ she's got loads of toys.
More toys than many little children have, hehe, I'm sure.
And she is so playful where as when she first came to me, she wouldn't run after a ball or, play with anything at all.
But now she’s so kittenish and she’s great company.