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They met on a London street and travelled the world together. It was on a street in Surrey last week that James Bowen lost the cat whose story touched millions of lives around the world. Bowen revealed yesterday that Bob the Street Cat, star of a series of bestselling books and a popular Hollywood film, died on Monday after being hit by a car.
Bob, who is thought to have been 14 years old, had gone missing from Bowen’s home two days earlier. “I can’t describe the grief I feel,” said Bowen, who was homeless and a recovering drug addict when he found Bob injured and abandoned in 2007. “I am utterly bereft.” The story of the ginger cat and his struggling human rescuer became an international cultural phenomenon after a literary agent, who often passed the pair on the street, suggested Bowen write a book about their partnership.
By then, the pair had become a fixture outside London’s Angel Tube station and around the streets of Covent Garden. Bob perched on Bowen’s shoulder as he busked for cash or sold copies of The Big Issue, the street newspaper that aids the homeless. Lord Bird, the British entrepreneur who cofounded the magazine, was among thousands of admirers who paid tribute to Bob on social media yesterday. “There’s never been a cat like him,” said Bird.
Bowen, 41, has long credited Bob with turning his life around - his book and its seven sequels have sold more than eight million copies in 40 languages. “Bob saved my life. It’s as simple at that,” he said. “We were soulmates and best friends”. Two weeks before Bob disappeared, Bowen wrote on their Facebook page: “These days his Street Cat lifestyle is long behind him, but of course Bob likes a breath of fresh air every now and again.”
How Bob escaped his purpose-built “catio” in Bowen’s garden remains unclear. It was late last Saturday night that Bowen first realised he was missing when he could not find him at bedtime. Bob used to sleep on a blue fleecy blanket on top of his owner’s duvet. “I went outside and called him but he didn’t come,” Bowen told the Daily Mail. On Monday afternoon a vet called to say Bob had been found, “but it’s bad news”. The vet told him Bob had been hit by a car less than half a mile away, suffering a head wound that killed him instantly.
The cat’s body was taken to the vet by a member of the public. The car’s driver remains unknown. Bob accompanied Bowen on many of his worldwide book tours, purring happily as long queues of fans waited for autographed copies. The cat appeared as himself in a 2016 film starring Luke Treadaway as Bowen; Bob’s fans will see him once more, in a sequel, "A Gift from Bob", due to appear later this year...
There's a cat that comes by from time to time, that hunts the pigeons.
It's a pain in the neck, and I wish it would go away.
If I see it, I wave my arms and make "Shoo" noises... ha ha...
Most of the time, if it sees me, it runs, anyway - "Oh no... it's that bloke that thinks he's a demented windmill... I'd better make myself scarce, and not encourage him...".... ha ha...
You see, to me, it's a pain in the neck... It's annoying.. Go away, cat... you scare the birds and I don't like that...
But to whoever it lives with, it's more than just a pet, more than just a companion.
It's not just a chattel, it''s not just a possession, It's a part of the fabric of their lives, it is intimately connected to them.
It's not "just a cat", it's the centrepiece of someone's happiness.
When a "pet" dies, it it not just the loss of a friend, it is the loss of a part of one's self.
There are no words that can take the raw edge from grief..
Sometimes all that can be said is Sorry.
And I am sorry for his loss, for I have known loss of my own.
Grief, however, fades. Happy memories do not.
🙂
