Read Luna's book

Luna was a long-haired cat who claimed every box and brought home leaves, one at a time. Her book, made after she died, holds ten to six in the morning, the doorbell, and who she allowed near. An example, made after Luna died.

• 

  Luna
• 

  Luna

  2009 – 2025

  Luna

• Luna

  2009 – 2025

  For Luna, 2009–2025.

  Luna1

  Breed

  Moggy, long-haired

  Lived with

  Madeleine and Tom, and Rufus the dog

  Spot

  Any box, the bookcase, the yellow chair

  Feared

  The doorbell

  Known for

  Bringing home leaves, one at a time

  Luna2

• 

  Luna3

  Ten to Six

  At ten to six Luna sat on Tom's chest and stared. No sound. If that didn't work, one paw on the nose, claws out. Then she led the way to the kitchen and sat by the bowl as if she had been waiting there for hours, the same performance, every morning, until someone gave in.

  Luna4

• What the Cat Brought In

  Never a mouse, not once in sixteen years. Instead, leaves, one at a time, laid on the doormat in a row. And once a whole slice of bread from the neighbours' bird table, carried home dry. She came through the flap with it flat in her mouth like a letter, set it on the kitchen floor, sat beside it and looked at them until Tom put it on a plate. She never ate it. The neighbours never knew.

  Luna5

  

  Luna6
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  Luna7

  Hers by Right

  Any box was Luna's the moment it arrived, claimed before it was even empty. Otherwise she took the top of the bookcase, where she could see the whole room and nobody could reach her, climbing up there until she was fifteen. The yellow chair in the kitchen was hers too, so completely that the household stopped sitting in it around 2012.

  Luna8
• 

  The top of the cat tree. Nobody could reach her there and she knew it.

  Luna9

  After the Bell

  The doorbell terrified her, not the visitors, the bell itself. At Christmas 2019, with twelve people in the house and the bell ringing eight times, she vanished and was not seen again until Boxing Day morning, back on the top shelf as if she had been there all along, as though nothing had happened and she had simply chosen to be there.

  Luna10

• The Quarterly Report

  Luna got away with sleeping on the laptop keyboard while Tom worked. She was warm, and it made him stop typing. He wrote a whole quarterly report for the water board that way, forty pages, typing one-handed, leaning round her. Nothing about her made it into the report. The water board never noticed.

  Luna11

  

  Luna12
• 

  Luna13

  Warm, and it stopped the typing.

  Luna14
• 

  Rufus and Luna, both waiting for Tom's car. They pretended not to be.

  Luna15

  An Hour, Unmoving

  The funniest thing she ever did: she fell asleep on the window sill, then slid off very slowly onto Rufus, who was asleep underneath. Neither of them stirred as she slid down, and neither woke once she landed. They stayed like that for a whole hour, the dog and the cat settled together in a heap, nobody moving, nobody minding, until at last they both woke on their own.

  Luna16

• 

  Luna17

  Who She Allowed Near

  Luna let very few close, but Rufus the dog was one, and he let her use him as a pillow, though he never once got the same in return. Madeleine's mother was the other, allergic but visiting anyway, always with her own blanket, so Luna would sit on that instead of on her lap directly.

  Luna18

• Around Luna

  Madeleine

  Her owner, whose mother came with a blanket just for her.

  Tom

  Woke to her stare at ten to six, typed reports around her.

  Rufus

  The dog who let her sleep on him, and never complained.

  Madeleine's mother

  Allergic, but visited anyway, sneezing, blanket in hand.

  Luna19
  MadeleineTomRufusMadeleine's mother

  Luna20

• 

  Luna21

  

  Luna22
• 

  Luna23

  Gone twenty minutes, back as if she'd never left.

  Luna24

• Sixteen years of leaves in a row on the doormat, boxes claimed before they were empty, a chair nobody else sat in again. The top shelf is still where the eye goes first when the doorbell rings. Rufus still sleeps in the same spot by the window, alone now.

  Luna25
  

  Luna, 2009–2025. Every box, always.

  Luna26

• This book was made for Luna, from the words and photos of the people who love Luna.

  bookofmypet.com