A family of four travelled to South Africa from Holmfirth to join a circus train. They were acrobats, and these were their names: Mr. & Mrs. Overend, Kassie and Meg.
The family travelled on the circus train to towns and villages. One day when they were all having a rest, Mr.Boswell, the owner of the circus, came to ask if Kassie and Meg would adopt two tiger cubs that had been born.
Kassie and Meg took the cubs back to their carriage. The two tiger cubs had to be treated like babies and fed very often. The tigers loved the milk, but one day after alot of crying one of the cubs refused the milk. Kassie nursed the tiger, but it got worse and died. Kassie and Meg were very sad so they decided to look after the other cub especially well so that she would not die. They called her Fenella, they thought that this was a good feline name. Click on the pictures.
Unfortunatley, the family soon heard bad news. It was 1939 and the war had started. They would have to return to England. The family were very worried that they would not be able to take Fenella back to England with them. However Mr. Overend did alot of talking and managed to get everything sorted out. They had alot of papers to sign, but eventually they were ready to start packing for their long journey back to England. They then waved "Goodbye" to all their friends on the circus train.
They sailed back to England on the "Arundel Castle". Fenella had the top deck to herself. She was very well behaved on the journey. They arrived at Southampton safely after a journey of two weeks. The family then had to sign many more papers and Fenella had to go into quarantine.
There was quite a long search to find kennels willing to take Fenella for the quarantine. Mr. Overend found some in Watford and Meg stayed to look after her. It was very hard as Fennella was growing all the time and played with her and got many scratches! She could not come into contact with any other animals.
After a few weeks Mr. Overend built a big pen in the garden of their home in Holmfirth and at long last Fenella could come home. At first she had to stay in the pen for the rest of the quarantine period, but later she came to live in the house and liked to curl up on the settee just like an overgrown ordinary cat. She was very easy to train.
In Holmfirth Fenella had a very special friend, a carthorse.
As Kassie and Meg took her on their walks past the horse's field the horse would come galloping over to greet them. Fenella liked to sit down and stare at the horse. She would sit and stare for a very long time, then she would get up and continue her walk.
Fenella used to like hunting pretend prey in a neighbour's garden. She spent most of her time hiding behind bushes and trees.
Meg and Kassie often took Fenella for walks on a lead and they often walked past the school. The school children lovedto walk with them and stroke Fenella, she was very gentle. The children waved and got excited.
The Overend family had lots of adventures with their unusual pet. They used to take her with them to performances. One day Fenella was in a bad mood and they couldn't get her to come out of her cage on to the stage. But they knew that she liked chips, so they had to go and sniff out a fish and chip shop. They coaxed her out with chips and Mr. Overend had to have the chips in his pocket to keep her in a good mood. Everyone thought it was funny that Fenella liked chips so much.
After many happy years, Fenella became ill whilst the family were touring in Lancashire. They brought her back to Holmfirth, but the vet said that there was nothing he could do because she had kidney failure. She died. Fenella was buried in her favourite hunting grounds in the garden.
