大象传媒

I am 72 years old, and I was 9 yrs when the war started. My father was in his 50's so he didn't need to sign up for the forces and, in any case, he was a skilled armourer working for the BSA Co making guns. we were bombarded with ads aking us to grow our own food.
Dad decided to "do his bit" by keeping chickens in a pen which he made in the back garden. He duly sent off for to somewhere in Cumbria for a number of Rhode Island Red chicks and they were installed in the pen. He set about feeding them till they became adults and would commence laying. Unfortunately, we had a pregnant cat which, shortly after the chicks arrived, gave birth to 6 kittens and she, too, commenced feeding them till they became adult! She needed a lot of sustenance to feed 6 kittens and took a fancy to Dad's chickens; actually the pen wasn't as secure as it might have been and she had little difficulty in gaining access! Dad came home from work one day to find the only thing left was a chicks leg. This incensed him so much that he proceeded to drown the cats & kittens in the copper boiler in the kitchen. In retrospect it was very funny because the cat and kittens weren't easy to catch and there were moggies flying in all directions!! Actually Mom managed to save one of the kittens and it grew up and lived with us for a long time. Of course, Dad's temper had cooled down by the time he found about about this one kitten.