Satan the hospital cat’s tasty treat...

FUrTHer to the story about the cat in the milk churn (Peterborough), I was reminded of the following events, also from many years ago and long before the days of health and safety regulations. My late father worked for years at the old West london Hospital, now long gone. One day, a woman from a large food company whose factory was nearby was rushed in with severe burns after having fallen into a vat of boiling pea soup. My father, recounting the story, agreed with my mother that in that time of food restrictions and post-war rationing, it was highly unlikely that the soup would have been discarded, as it would fill hundreds of cans. Then there’s the story of Satan, the cat. It seems strange in today’s climate, but Satan, a large black moggie, lived in the hospital. He belonged to the hall porter who had premises there. every afternoon at the same hour, the theatre sister on the top floor would provide tea for the surgeons in a room by the operating theatre — and she always had a saucer of milk for Satan. So at exactly the appointed hour, Satan would sit and wait by the lift in the hall until someone opened the door, when he would enter the lift, passing the lower floors, until it arrived at theatre level. There he would get out and saunter to the spot where he found his saucer of milk. One day, in theatre, the surgeon removed a specimen of liver to be collected by someone from pathology, but when he arrived, the specimen was nowhere to be found. ‘I’m sure I left it in that kidney dish at the side,’ said the extremely puzzled surgeon. Afterwards, the cat was seen in his usual place, waiting for the lift to go down — looking suspiciously contented and washing his whiskers. Elizabeth Roche,

London SW20.