The "Get off you fool!" (not "bloody fool") cat story is authoritative, from the reliable Elizabeth Nel in *Mr Churchill's Secretary* (Hodder & Stoughton, 1958), 74:
"On the morning in question Mr. Churchill sat in bed and Smokey sat on the blankets watching him. The Prime Minister's telephone conversation with the C.I.G.S. was long and anxious; his thoughts were far away; his toes wiggled under the blankets. I saw Smokey's tail switch as he watched, and wondered what was going to happen. Suddenly he pounced on the toes and bit hard. It must have hurt for Mr. Churchill, started, kicked him right into the corner of the room shouting, 'Get off, you fool' into the telephone. Then he remembered. "Oh," he said, "I didn't mean you" and then seeing Smokey looking somewhat dazed in the corner, 'Poor little thing.' Confusion was complete, the C.I.G.S. hung up hastily and telephoned the Private Secretary to know what was happening. It took a long time to get it all sorted out, and Sir Alan Brooke assured that it was not his fault." Churchill owned an African Grey parrot, but story about a Macaw surviving to a ripe old age and ending up at a pet shop (Reigate, Surrey, the papers reported) is rubbish, Lady Soames in *Finest Hour* 117 (Winter 2002-03). We had picked up a story about a blue and yellow Macaw named Charlie, allegedly born 1899, acquired by Chartwell in 1937, and still going strong and cussing hard at 103. Lady Soames wrote: "Some weeks ago several of our glorious tabloids carried the story of the Macaw parrot (*FH* 116:6). I exploded and did nothing! However, now tthat this mendacious paragraph appears in a respectable publication I would really like to put the record straight. My father never owned a Macaw in the 1930s or at any other time as far as I am aware. He did own an African Grey Parrot in the mid- to late-Thirties. I do not know how he acquired it?it may well be as stated in the offending piece. I cannot remember the parrot's name; it was quite disagreeable and frequently bit those who tried to curry favour with it (including WSC). It lived in a large cage in the dining room at Chartwell. The bird did not spend the war at my father's side; when the family removed from Chartwell to London in September/October 1939 I have the impression the parrot had a good hom(e found for it. I would be glad if Finest Hour would correct this tiresome though trivial inaccuracy." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
