Madame Askew and The Grand Arbiter

Originally posted to our Patreon

Please allow me the unalloyed privilege of introducing Princess Pounce, Reaper of Pigeons. Her royal highness was born into the royal family of Montenegro. When her family was cruelly and unjustly deposed, Princess Pounce went on a tour of the grand salons of Europe with several of her siblings. One by one, the young royal kitties found new homes amongst the nobility of different lands. Princess Pounce, however, found herself shuffled from situation to situation, never quite a guest, never entirely at home.

With such a precarious plight, Pounce undertook to make herself both indispensable to her hosts and endlessly charming. With a focus and perseverance that bellied her tender age, the princess undertook a course of study in the fine art of conversation and the noble pastime of hunting. In short order, she became renowned for her skills on the pigeon hunt and her witty tea time conversation.  Her stays amongst her various guests became more bearable and of greater duration as her skill and reputation proceeded her. Soon, noble and aristocratic houses were begging for the honour of her company, but Pounce knew that she would ultimately find a companion who valued her for more than a few ephemeral skills.

She found respite, at last, with the Dowager Duchess of Sussex, a dashing and vital noble woman who had found herself widowed and with an infant heir in her first year of marriage. Coming from such a precarious beginning in an aristocratic family, the Duchess understood Pounce and in each other they found a kindred soul and bosom companion. Thereafter, she and the Dowager spent their days hosting luncheons and whist parties and occasional teas for dearest friends. The made their residence in one of the fine family estates and maintained an ambiance and mode of great fashion until their were both turning grey about the temples

Princess Pounce took her final nap as an elder kitty on her favourite tuffet in the Dowager’s dressing room.  The Dowager went into deepest and most stylish mourning, changing from black to lavender only when reminded that the colour best resembled Princess Pounce’s fine eyes.

Her Highness has gone onto her forever haunt where she continues to be a terror to all pigeons and to share her indefatigable though charming opinion on matters of etiquette and romance.

Let us all raise our teacups to dear Princess Pounce!