Richard’s official birthday: April 1st, 1990.
Favourite food: prawns and raw turkey and anything he can lick off the floor
(This is him eating strawberry ice cream on his first birthday.)
Least favourite food: anything you actually want him to eat
Longest expedition from the house: eight hours.
Latest return to the house: 1 a.m after five hours outside (September 14th, 1992)
Furthest afield when spotted: in lower grounds of University Hall (which is about half a mile from our house.)
Favourite game: Biting Cat (q.v.)
Favourite person: my mother, who he thinks is his mother. He won’t sit on any lap but hers.
Favourite prey: wood-mice.
Largest thing ever caught: baby rabbits (four, so far, in his life.)
For those rabbit-lovers among you, please don’t be concerned: we got this rabbit off him unharmed, and in the end I caught it and set it free in an open space. It was a bit shocked but not at all damaged.
Greatest nuisance from prey: a mouse which he caught on 6th of May 1995, which he let go in the house and which lived under the washing machine, coming out at night to steal bread and eat soap (!). We finally got it outside on the 20th of July. It met another mouse and had a litter of baby mice, all of which Richard caught and brought in to us, so that I had to take them away again.
Cleverest feat: climbing up a tree into a pigeon’s nest and carrying back an egg in his mouth, despite having to jump over a five-foot wall to get here.
Favourite beds: my father’s chair, the table in the window, under the table next to me, all subject to change as the whim takes him.
Greatest act of cheek: when he wanted to go to bed on my father’s chair and his Stare didn’t have the desired effect, getting up on the arm and pushing his head in behind my father’s back in an attempt to lever him off by force. As far as he is concerned, it worked.
Favourite saying: "Chirrup!" (which can mean "Hello", "I want my tea", "I’m getting up here", "I’m getting down again", "I need the toilet", "I’m going to play with that toy", "Thank you", etc.)
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