At the end of Old Furnace Road lives the Grimalkin Cat Crone Witch.......her name is EsmerHELLda.
However, just because she's a Witch, that doesn't mean she's bad or evil.
In fact, she's very much loved by the people in the town and nearby villages. She merely prefers to live alone, with her cats, and keep to herself.

EsmerHELLda is of average height....about 29 inches tall from the bottom of her heavy wooden doll stand (included) to the top of her crooked pointed hat. She also loves the night-time......the darkness........so she dresses in black all the time. Her hooded dress is black..... as black as pitch.
Her pantaloons match her dress.

Her face is old and she shows her years........her nose is long and pointed, as is her chin, complete with a black mole. Her heavy eyes reveal scary yellow eyes and a potpourri flower mouth that has been stitched into place. Her dark eyebrows frame her face, which is barely seen sometimes because of all the thick wool hair.

EsmerHELLda has a few pet Crows that stay with her at all times. She has always made friends with birds and cats.

People come from far and wide to visit EsmerHELLda...she possesses a special gift in the form of a spell / charm.
It's a spell, or charm, that will keep your cat from ever running away from your home.

For years and years all the people would come pay a visit to EsmerHELLda so she could ensure their cats wouldn't wander or stray. They'd bring their wide-eyed kittens and new cats from local animal shelters. Sometimes they'd bring boxes of kittens at a time. It warmed her heart to see the innocent faces of the children as they showed her their new pets. A few even named their new kitties after EsmerHELLda.

And EsmerHELLda would always have her supplies with her, in case she had to do an emergency spell / charm.
You never know what can happen in the course of a day, or the night.

She usually gets a lot of visitors after the weekends.........children and young married couples spend the weekends looking for just the right pet....or perhaps a stray cat would wander up.......a stray that never had 'the charm' set upon it. So, those people make a call to EsmerHELLda.

She lives near the woods, in a clearing, in a small English cottage. It has the rounded roof and rounded door. I always called those type of doors the 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' doors.
In fact, my house has a door like that........see......

But, I digress..........
Everyone who visits EsmerHELLda knows to visit at night. They will approach the cottage and and see the flickering candle light in the windows. Her friend in Massachusetts sends her these wonderful Massachusetts Bay candles in jars and EsmerHELLda loves to light them and make her cottage smell just like Blueberry Cheesecake.

Blueberry is EsmerHELLda's favorite berry in the world.
And when she makes her visit to your home, she'll bring you a wooden box of the best Blueberry tea you ever put in your mouth.

The pet-bearing visitors will knock upon her door and she'll let them come in. They'll sit in wooden rocking chairs and cozy up with quilts and sip Blueberry Tea with EsmerHELLda in front of the huge Granite stone fireplace. She will chat with her visitors and get to know their new kitty a little better.

Then the time will come for EsmerHELLda to offer up the charm. She will let the visitor do the charm themselves, otherwise, the kitty would never stray from EsmerHELLda's cottage.....they would see it as THEIR home.
So, EsmerHELLda will explain the charm by reciting it, and then give the visitor a printed copy to keep and perform later that night.
It was always best to perform the spell / charm on the night it is first received.
And, most importantly, the spell / charm has to be received from EsmerHELLda herself.......it won't work if people pass it along to each other. This is due only because the powers have to come from EsmerHELLda, not because she is necessarily against that sort of 'file sharing'....or the fear of 'bootlegging' the spell / charm.
But in order to assure a fresh, working spell / charm, it has to come from EsmerHELLda.

The spell / charm is easy to perform.....but has to be explained by EsmerHELLda in order to be understood correctly. She will first show the visitor the supplies they would need.

She keeps her own supplies in a little twig bird's nest that rests upon the roots of a 200 year old tree. And inside the bird's nest sits her black and white kitty........one of MANY kitties she has.
And, as you can see, she also has a beautiful solid black kitty that stays at her feet wherever she goes.

There is also a sack of Catnip in a muslin bag. She has a bottle of fresh cream and a white bowl with unblemished Catnip. Beside the bowl of Catnip sits the vial of Hen's Fat.....an important ingredient of the spell / charm.

Hanging from the bird's nest are three green candles. All spells seem to 'take' better when performed by candlelight. And hanging beside the candles is a small glass vial with real black cat hair. The cat hair inside the vial is from her own cats and for her own spells. The vial has a silver top.

And hanging lower from the bird's nest is her real wax-sealed letter, containing the 'charm' that is spoken and then written down, as well as wax-sealed, using black sealing wax. It hangs from very old chain. (thank you Gypsy Katt)
After performing her spell / charm, she hides the wax-sealed letter.....as long as it stays hidden, the cat will never stray from home.

Hanging from EsmerHELLda's belt is a real silver spoon......I have a dozen or so of these little spoons and they've been in my family for over 40 years, and were handed down from others before we got them. So, they're old.
Using a silver spoon during the spell / charm is very important.

Also hanging from the belt is EsmerHELLda's Grimoire.......her spell book. It's made of real leather, has Parchment pages, and it's been 'aged'.

The spell / charm is as follows........

Charm To Keep a Cat From Straying

To win the faith and affection of a cat, her dignity, and overweening wit not withstanding, you must please her and make her smile.
Your way of charming must amuse and entertain her while it takes her fancy and so claims her.
Therefore, dry for some days in a clean white bowl thirteen leaves of good unblemished catnip-none that has been broken, trodden, or neglected among weeds, but for preference that which you have planted in a decent corner of the garden-for her pleasure.
When the leaves are dry, crush them to a powder with a silver spoon, and mix them into a spoonful of fat from some fine hen or duck or goose, or else into an ounce of your best butter.
When this ointment is stirred smooth, let it rest for an hour or so. Meanwhile, invite the cat to sit upon a table in your kitchen. Set before her a small dish of cream, a few ounces of cooked fish, and a morsel of raw beef, and while she eats, say this to her:

After reciting the spell / charm, EsmerHELLda gives the copy of it to the visitors. It will come rolled and secured with a piece of black Raffia.

Sometimes, if EsmerHELLda thinks that a pet isn't in a good home, she'll offer to perform the spell herself......knowing that the unsuspecting visitors do not know any better. Then, before the kitty can come to harm or neglect, it'll find it's way back to EsmerHELLda's cottage on Old Furnace Road.
You gotta love a Witch who can think like that!!