My memory mostly is of their cat, Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell was fat and bad-tempered. She disliked children and probably for good reason. She spent most of her time sleeping in places that nobody could reach. On the tops of high cabinets in rooms that seemed to have the least foottraffic although in a family with that many children there wasnt really a room like that. There was the living room, which Mrs X called the “parlour” in a half joking way like she was a character in a novel about fancy people in the 1900s. She didnt like anyone going in there because she liked it to be kept “nice” in case there was company. Sometimes Caroline, Gretchen, and i would sneak in there. We’d start out sitting on the blue velvet couch and armchair and chat like actual grownup ladies, but then we’d eventually take the cushions off the couch (silver brocade) and end up lolling on the floor. Tinkerbell always tried to get in and sometimes Caroline would let her and she would immediately jump up onto a white painted cabinet holding all the fine china. The cabinet would shudder and the china would rattle under her weight.