Fairy Ireland and Amazing Tribe of Fairy Cats

Fairies don’t just come in the shape of the wee people. There are fairy cats, too.  I should know because our own Zelda became the founding matriarch of the tribe of Fairy Cats.  But let  me give you a little bit of background. You might need to just temporarily suspend your disbelief in fairy cats.

 

Most of my regular readers probably know by this time that I live in the homeplace of Fairy Ireland.   This is because we live within view of Slieve Anierin  (Iron Mountain) in Leitrim where the Tuatha de Danaan, the original fairy race of Ireland, first set land fall in Ireland.

 

When you live in a place with a large fairy population you have to expect to get lost as you tour the byways and boreens in this rural part of Ireland.   We have lost count of the times we have gotten irrevocably twisted and turned about in South Leitrim whenever we get close to Shebeg, where Old Irish hero Finn McCool is buried,  and Shemore. We’ve stopped arguing over the routes because we take it for granted that the fairies have led us down a merry path for their own entertainment or occult purposes.

 

This past weekend my friend Beryl drove up from Mayo to visit us this weekend. She has visited us several times before. She knows where we live for heaven’s sake! Yet, she kept getting stuck in what felt like an eternal loop somewhere around Dromahair. “Honestly, I was at the point where I was going to stop and turn my coat inside out.”

 

The turning the coat inside out is one of those bits of  Irish fairy lore that you need to know when you visit this part of Ireland. Beryl’s plight may have been complicated because she had the original member of the Corrogue Fairy Cat tribe in the back seat of the car.

 

Now we get to the heart of the foundation of the strange tale of how a ‘foundling cat’ came to be the matriarch of the Corrogue Tribe of Fairy Cats.  This owl faced tortoiseshell who appeared in our lives we eventually named Zelda. She always had a whiff of autumn leaves and bonfires about her. But a more tame and appreciative cat you could not hope to meet. Who could have dumped this sweet creature?

 

 

Zelda was found by our neighbour Annie who divides her time between Corrogue and Birmingham. Zelda had first appeared beside our local holy well.

 

Young friend sampling the water from St. Hugh’s Holy Well, Ballinagleragh, Co. Leitrim

Brief Digression: What’s a Holy Well? These are springs all over Ireland that were sacred to local deities and then dedicated to local saints after Ireland became Christianised. The water from these holy wells often have a specific cure associated with it and set prayers – or patterns as they are called – are said at the well on a holy day. Offerings are left in exchange for the cure.  (And this is important to remember because fairies work on the same premise of offerings and exchanges). Trust me when I tell you that holy wells are some of the main ‘thin places’ to visit on a trip to Ireland.

But getting back to the Fairy Cats…

Annie had fed this tame tortie during the summer but it wasn’t practical to take her back to England with her.  She looked like the double of our ancient cat Sophie, the household goddess, who was aging and had retired from any mousing activity.  On 4th of July the ancient Sophie purred her way into Pet Paradise.  Sixty-two days later the first of the fairy cats,  Zazu,  was born.

 

It was a major surprise as we’d not noticed that Zelda had been plumping up! There I was busy reading the Guardian on my side of the bed. Zelda was purring up a storm on the unoccupied side of the bed. Our sheepdog Murphy was asleep at my feet.  And then there was a squeak! No! Not a mouse! And I did the girly thing calling for the man of the house but -

 

it was not a mouse but a perfect little singleton kitten!

 

I knew who the dad was because Zelda had spurned certain toms advances but she was partial to a certain particular tom who was black and white with a ginger tail. “Impossible!” said German Barbara who I worked with.  She was adamant.  “ I have bred cats and tri-colors are always female.” But rest assured ,dear readers, this three toned tom was definitely all tom.  He returned to haunt our premises three weeks after Zazu’s birth. He serenaded Zelda at the window. It was such a true romance that Zelda began to hurl herself at the window to reach her true love – so hard that the window pane cracked.

 

Oh, and her beloved Tom was only ever spotted having a territory around the local holy well!

 

Well on December 2nd 2007 Zazu was joined by her other full siblings- Ziggy, ZsaZsa, Zymina and Zeena and the tribe of fairy cats was complete (at least in Corrogue, the tribe lives on in Mayo  and Galway with a branch founded by Zazu).

 

We did the responsible owner thing and took Zelda to the vets. We have our responsibility to the other species who live in Corrogue and too many cats would have created predators on other species like the native red squirrel, the pygmy shrews, the long eared bats not to mention the host of migrating and year round bird species.

 

But after that we never ever saw the black and white tom with the ginger tail ever again. Poof!

 

Many of the legends in Irish myth and folklore refer to the immortal Tuatha de Danaan, the ancestral fairies, marrying mortal Formorians. We’ve always had a notion that Impossible Three Tone Tom was Tuatha de Danaan in cat form who made an alliance with the loving mortal Zelda who smelt of bonfire and autumn leaves and magic. They had a brief, intense romance and five children. Some are innately fey and wise like Zazu who also has her mother’s affectionate nature. Zymina on the other hand takes after her dad – she has that wildish streak, walking like a lion across the savannah, glorying in the outdoors. They all went to good homes in Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan and Mayo.

 

Irish folklore tells stories of fairy cattle – usually stags and hinds found in magical woodlands. Out here in Corrogue we have a different kind of fairy cattle – we breed fairy cats and they have dispersed throughout Ireland, just as  the Tuatha de Danaan did when the went into the sidh and moved to the underworld.