Coffee

Coffee was born on a farm in Biddenden, Kent, UK, just one little kitty amongst three litters delivered almost simultaneously by the three farm cats. She spent her first two months hanging out in the laundry room with her brothers and sisters and three tiny ducklings (protected from the felines by a Tupperware bowl), with occasional visits from the farmer, his wife, the farm sheepdog and the farm rottweiler. Despite being a nervous hissing ball of fluff for a few days after moving in with the Coffee team, Coffee soon became one of the most spoilt and contented cats on the planet, treated to a mountain of toys and gourmet cat foods, a 5 foot high "cat activity centre" and her own personal "cat dome" toilet (has to be seen to be believed). She came out of herself and spent two blissful years moaning at Head of Artists Gelli Graham and Head of Film Steve Piper for attention and "brushy brushy" whenever she woke up. Despite never allowing most mere humans to get anywhere near her highly prized coat, bribery with tuna and honeydew melon has developed a fine repertoire of tricks including kiss (numerous variations), shake hand, spin, sit like a meercat, "show" (where she points with her paw at what toy she wants to play with, which food she wants, or what door or whatever she wants opened for her) and is working on jump the stick and "don't scratch the dog/other cat's face off". The emergence of the Coffee Artists' dog (Baron, a Japanese Akita; known for their instinctive desire to hunt anything smaller than them, their stubborn refusal to back down or acknowledge pain and their ability to grow into 10 stone monsters capable of taking out bears) resulted in a brief spate of depression that quickly cleared up when she realised dogs can't climb on the piano, jump up on work surfaces, get over the newly installed baby gates or even negotiate stairs without considerable mental strain. The even more recent addition of a second cat, Cookie, met with similar frosty reception, however after a year Cookie is still the size of a kitten whilst Coffee is the same weight as the average wildcat and has discovered that a second cat means a second bowl of food that she can quite cheerfully bat Cookie away from. Coffee is very literally one in a million suffering from the genetic disorder polycythemia, a form of leukaemia which forces red blood cell production into overdrive and very nearly killed her when it surfaced in 2004. Pet Plan insurance learned to curse her name with a five figure veterinary bill taking in the most advanced facility for feline medicine in the country and Coffee is now not only one of the youngest cats to have experienced polycythemia but also one of only a handful to survive it's onset and the ongoing treatment of a weekly pill; thanks to Newnham Court Veterinary Practice and the Animal Health Trust for keeping our little bean alive! Coffee made her film debut in Gelli and Coffee, Coffee Films' submission to the One World One Minute project, has just started to develop a modelling career as the face of our local RSPCA and the cover girl for new designer pet accessories company Designer Collars and was also the driving inspiration behind the company's move into natural history filmmaking. Presently she's enjoying Steve Piper's office windowsill where she begs constantly for food after a vet prescribed diet to shed a kilo or so, and just last week leapt from Gelli Graham's first floor office window landing completely unscathed some 20 feet below on a solid patio because she fancied chewing some grass in the garden...