A tale that’s close to home

‘Scrap the Cat Finds a Home’ is inspired by a kitten found in author Sue Russell's backyard

Anyone who has ever welcomed a stray pet into their home has no doubt pondered the animal’s life before coming into your orbit.

Sue Russell had such thoughts about her cat, and when the constraints of the first Lockdown fastened into place, she put pen to paper. ‘Scrap the Cat Finds a Home’, aimed at very young children was the end result.

“It’s based on the imagined back story of my real cat, who I called Scrap and who came into my life about 14 years ago. He just arrived in my yard one day and I never knew where he came from, I was never able to track any owners for him,” says the Oldcastle woman with Dublin roots.

The book conjures an imagined past that’s not entirely sugar and spice and all things nice for poor Scrap. His eight siblings are mean to him, and his self absorbed parents seemingly indifferent.

‘Scrap the Cat Finds a Home’ is a very traditional style story, executed more in the precise language of Beatrix Potter than the playful rhythm and rhyme of Julia Donaldson.

As a mother of two adult children, and now grandmother to two children - Joe and Sophia - Sue’s had plenty of experience in reading kids’ books. “There’s something really nice about reading to children. It makes for lovely conversation and chat at the end of the day and often leads you into all sorts of places.”

Her experience shows in this beautifully judged story.

“You just need to spark their imagination,” she replies when asked about what makes for a good children’s book.

“I know sometimes the language in my book would be for a very competent reader. It’s not very simplistic in that sense. But I think it paints the pictures - that’s what I try to do to paint a picture with the words,” she says, adding her own favourite kids’ book is ‘Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles’ by Terry Furchgott.

While the book was penned during Lockdown one, it was put to one side until the post-Christmas Lockdown.

“January-February, this year, like everybody I think, I found that hard going, and I thought right, we’ll get this going again,” recalls Sue, who also writes a column for Women on Wednesday, a weekly supplement for the Evening Echo.

For children’s books illustrations are, at least, as important as the story, and here Sue enlisted the help of Cavan friend Margaret McKenna who excelled in the brief. Her warm, gentle illustrations chime with the tone of the tale and bring Scrap’s personality to life.

“I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted the illustrations to look like, and I was just hoping I could communicate that to her. Fair play to her, because she’s an illustrator, she’s used to working with people and taking other people’s ideas on board.”

At their regular meet-ups for walks in Virginia’s Deerpark Woods, Margaret would bring along sketches of Scrap.

“I said, ‘oh, that’s him! That’s Scrap! You’ve got him.’”

Sadly the real Scrap passed away three years ago, but he left an indelible mark on Sue.

“He was just an amazing cat and he changed my life. I don’t actually like cats,” she says with a laugh, possibly half surprised she’s admitted as much. “I’m not really an animal person.”

That leads to another confession – the real life story of Scrap almost had a different ending. When Sue found him in her yard, the kitten-sceptic part of her brain kicked in and she brought him to Kitten Cottage run by Maire Egan for the Virginia charity to rehome him. However over that weekend, little Scrap remained in Sue’s thoughts.

“On the Monday morning I rang her and said, ‘Do you still have that cat?’

“She said ‘I do, I knew you’d be back’ she said, ‘he’s fabulous!’”

It was a decision she never regretted, and which ultimately led to her writing this, her first ever book.

“I was absolutely thrilled,” she recalls of the first moment she held a copy of Scrap the Cat.

“I’ve been involved with many, many productions over the years, but this was my first very own story and book. The fact that I had designed and done the layout was scary, hoping I’d gotten everything right. I wanted it to look good as well as read well. A book should be a beautiful thing in its own right. So yeah, I was, as we Dubs say, ‘delira’!”