She was a lovely big soppy stripy cat , and I say was because she unfortunately died a few days ago after a short and sudden illness. When I came to write about her in my diary I had a look to see if you can use the personal "a" with pet cats, and yes, you can ... I was pleased.
Here's what my edition of Butt and Benjamin has to say ...
" with animals, use of personal "a" depends on the extent to which the creature is humanised. Pets virtually always take personal "a", but in other cases use of "a" depends on factors of emotion or context: the more familar the language, the more likely the use of "a". At the Zoo one is likely to say "Vamos a ver a los monos" but, probably, " Vamos a ver los insectos."
" A Spanish Learning Grammar simply says you use the personal "a" ..
" when referring affectionately to an animal"
and I think that says it all.
On her grave in the back garden though she has a Welsh word ... " Adref"
It means " homeward" and we hope that in the big garden up in the sky she will always be in the garden at home. It's going on my grave too !
After all those sad and serious matters both personal and grammatical, here's a mini-concert with Zahara ... and a rather loquacious compere, if that's what he is ...