Colin

Colin deserves his own page!

House-guest to many, Colin lives with us in a quiet corner of Crouch End. At home on any sofa, and in many a kitchen, Colin's been a part of our family for longer than I have. He was Ruth's best boy along with Derek for years before Ruth and I met.

The first time I met Ruth was the night Colin got run over in Blackheath. It happened right opposite my house; Ruth had recently moved in to the house I had just left which was right opposite. Ruth was completely distraught as you can imagine and rushed him down to her surgery to try and save his life. He was in a real mess.

Ruth is a vet but she couldn't bring herself to operate on him herself. One of her colleagues, an orthopaedic specialist, spent hours pinning Colin's back legs together with steel plates - one of his front legs was so badly damaged that it had to come off entirely.

To this day one of his back legs doesn't bend properly, and what with only having the one front leg you'd think this would slow him down. Not a bit of it. He can scamper around with the best of them and he's as cheeky a boy as you could like.

He's so friendly that our neighbours have found him on their sofas, eating their cats' food, even in their beds! Which is how he came to have a starring role in the Ally's World series of books.

Our next-door neighbour and friend Karen writes the Ally's World books and Colin was a member of the local community too colourful to leave out; around lunchtime for her 4 cats he was pretty difficult to get out altogether - out of her kitchen, that is.

So Colin and his three legs have charmed their way into our life, our neighbours' lives, and also the lives of thousands and thousands of young readers worldwide.