Stan, The Cotswolds Railway Cat

Excerpt about the true story of Stan, the Cotswolds Railway Cat from the non-fiction book; MORE COTSWOLDS MEMOIRS: Creating the Perfect Cottage and Discovering Downton Abbey in the Cotswolds by Diz White. Available on Amazon

On the platform I was astonished to see a tabby cat sleeping on a woman’s lap as she
sat waiting for a train. “How sweet. Do you always travel with your cat?” I asked.
It turned out that this was Stan the station cat who spent his days hanging round
the ticket office of Charlbury Station, nuzzling passengers, climbing on their laps
and purring contentedly until a train came along.

Stan climbed onto my cat-whisperer husband Randall’s lap and preened and
purred with all the affection showered upon him. When he jumped down we
followed him as he loped slowly along Platform 1.

Stan then hovered by the lily pond and stared hungrily at the darting fish.
He made a few half-hearted swipes at them and then yawned and cleaned
his face. Apparently, between trains Stan likes to lie in the change-well
below the ticket window.

When he fails to get out of the way in time, passengers sometimes
have to retrieve their change from his fur. Stan has become something
of a star around these parts as his picture is prominently displayed at
the station and can be spotted through the ticket window.

Chalbury Station looks for all the world like it belongs in one of those old Ealing
comedies, or an episode of Poirot, and is well worth seeing whether or not a
visitor is travelling by train.

Apparently, having Stan hop on their lap and purr his way into their
hearts has caused a number of cat-loving passengers to let the
train to Paddington continue on without them.

This was an excerpt from More Cotswolds Memoirs: Creating the Perfect Cottage and
Discovering Downton Abbey in the Cotswolds (Available on Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany).