Odds and quads

This tribute to a beloved pet cat was written by Alexander Warren Dury Mitton, a genealogist and one-time Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms at the College of Arms.

Anxious that his "small belongings should not be lost to posterity", he presented the leather-bound volume to the librarian of what is now Aberystwyth University in 1974.

It includes details of Ticker's diet, as well as a brief biography of the "little stump-tailed manx cat" that became a "close companion" and brought Mr Mitton "22 years and a quarter of complete happiness".

Although at first reluctant to take in the stray kitten he found on the stairs of his London home, he soon fell in love with "darling Ticker", let him sleep on his bed and "trained him to follow me at the whistle".

Explaining his choice of archive, Mr Mitton wrote to the librarian that Ticker "was a great Welshman, and came down every year to Wales, which he dearly loved, and is buried there".

Send suggestions for this series on the sector's treasures, oddities and curiosities to: matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com.