Our History
Ever since my family returned in 1955 from my father’s Army posting to Germany (where we had a dog) there were always one or more cats in the family. Owing to an itinerant lifestyle it was rarely possible for me to have my own cat after I left home, although I did have some in Switzerland for a time. Since returning to the UK in 1998 I have always had one or more.
Early on, sadly, they seemed to have a penchant for getting run over here; I lost three that way. For the last 15 years, though, all has been well and later cats have avoided the road and lived long lives.
My sister Amanda has also had cats for many years and currently she thas three. They ‘appeared’ as semi-feral kittens at her house in the country, along with their mother who has since died.
The Beginning of Purr ‘n’ Fur
It’s difficult to remember now exactly what caused the Purr ‘n’ Fur site to be started in 2003. Amanda had taught herself HTML coding and the internet was up and running, so the tools were available. Something sparked my interest in the story of Simon, the famous cat of HMS Amethyst and I began to research that in depth – so we thought of posting the story online, and those were the very first of our pages. I think the story of Faith, the London church cat, came next.
In May 2003 I attended the Ypres Cat Festival (Kattenstoet) in Belgium and took many photos, which then started a new section.
Over the years we expanded the site greatly, to cover the stories of cats in many situations; generally we featured real-life tales, but also covered topics like the Cheshire Cat, Dick Whittington’s cat and the like. For around 30 years I collected postage stamps that include cats, so pages about those followed too and were updated with new issues two or three times a year. I also travelled many miles in the UK photographing inn signs that included cats. Those are more difficult to keep current now that I don’t travel, but some information can be found online.
Ups and Downs
I did the writing and much of the research, while Amanda ‘made it happen’, coding and posting the pages. In recent years for various reasons she found it more difficult to find the time and energy to devote to it, so things slowed down and in 2019 work on the site more or less stopped. Some updating was done annually for several years, but for the last couple of years even that hasn’t been possible. We were aware that the coding we used was old-fashioned and not friendly to many modern electronic devices, but were in no position to do anything about it.
I find the research fascinating, and of course with e-mail and the huge development of the internet it’s far easier now than it used to be. It has brought me into contact with some really interesting people in various parts of the world, and virtually all have been very willing to help with information.
The Project Continues
It seemed a shame, when work on the site stopped, that the information could no longer be kept up to date, and new material added. There are always new cats to write about! So I decided to copy most of the pages onto Word documents that I could edit and update, and I continued to add new ones too. The passion to share all the new information is what has led to the establishment of this new site.
Patrick Roberts – June 2026