This year’s International Cat Day sees more than 400 million cats on the planet, including strays and ferals.
But there are few quite like the legendary Towser the mouser of Glenturret Distillery.
Towser, a long-haired tortoiseshell, served at the Crieff distillery for 24 years from 1963 to 1987.
It was suggested her ripe old age was down to the water she drank, the same water that went into the whisky.
Her mousing prowess earned her a place in the Guinness World Book of Records for catching 28,899 mice during her years of service.
By observing her for a few days, and applying a statistical technique, the Guinness adjudicators calculated that incredible figure.
The story goes that Towser’s amazing mousing prowess was the result of a “tiny wee dram” being added to her milk each night.
However, Glenturret bosses have historically failed to confirm or deny this, instead stating: “We certainly wouldn’t advise it to anyone whose cat is under-performing in terms of rodent control!”
At that time, Glenturret malted its own barley, an irresistibly attractive to mice.
Rampant rodents would have caused havoc at the distillery, so Towser more than earned her stripes.
She’s remembered with a bronze statue in her honour.
Here Emmerdale actors Chris Chittell and Patrick Mower pay tribute to her on a visit to the distillery in 2005.
Towser was a hard act to follow, but her successor Amber was branded a complete flop, often running away when a mouse appeared.
Distillery shop assistant manager Melanie Cobban, who was ‘official cat minder” in 1998 said Amber preferred to sleep or play around rather than drive the mice out.
“Amber loves to laze about and do nothing except soak up the attention from visitors.
“She is far too sociable a cat to be a mouse catcher, so she spends most of the day with us in the shop.
“She’ll never be able to follow in Towser’s famous footsteps.”
In 2001 after 14 years, Amber had yet to catch her first mouse.
“She’s obviously decided against the working life and spends most of her days sleeping in the shop,” said distillery shop manager Margaret McIntyre.
“She learned very quickly that she would get fed without having to catch her own and that’s the way it’s remained for 14 years.
Massive mouse fail
“She did have one catch several years ago and brought her trophy into the shop.
“Unfortunately it was still alive and we were all soon chasing this poor wee mouse around the place – much to the amusement of our foreign visitors.
“It was eventually caught and set free so Amber’s one and only catch wasn’t even a kill.”
Amber died in 2004, but although she was much loved, unlike Towser there’s no chance she’ll get a memorial for her mousing service.
Here’s her immediate successor Dylan, selected in 2005 from a short list of felines who’d fallen on hard times put forward by the Cats Protection League.
Finding Amber’s replacement wasn’t easy.
How to find a suitable cat ambassador and mouser for the distillery?
A cat psychologist was even consulted, and a short-list of moggy hopefuls drawn up, all described as ‘real characters’.
Eventually two were chosen, Dylan, a ginger tom from Forfar, above, and long-haired black and white Brooke from Cardyke near Glasgow.
They were followed by the sadly short-lived kitten Peat, and then by furry pals Glen and Turret in 2015.
Glen and Turret are still doing their job, the distillery says, fitting it in around lapping up visitor attention.
As Glenturret has stopped malting barley on site, the moggies have far less mousing to do these days than the mighty Towser.
Glenturret distillery, near Crieff, has other claims to fame.
It is, arguably, Scotland’s oldest working distillery, dating back to 1763 and preceded by many surrounding illicit stills.
Its current annual output is 340,000 litres.
The water used in production is from Loch Turret, in turn from Ben Chonzie in the Grampian range.
It’s particularly soft and pure, contributing to the taste and character of the Glenturret single malt.
Glenturret belongs to the Edrington group, which also owns Highland Park, The Macallan and a half-share of Edinburgh’s North British grain distillery that, uniquely, uses French-grown maize rather than wheat. It first opened in 1775 but was mothballed from 1921 to 1957.
In 1981, then-owners Remy Cointreau opened a visitor centre, which in 2002 became The Famous Grouse Experience.
General manager is Stuart Cassells, latterly of Red Hot Chilli Pipers fame, who traded his pipes for copper ones.
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