An unlikely one-eyed feline gained her moment of fame from the 2009 Cannes Film festival by taking the leading role in an eight minute film from England that cost just £1.000 to make and was selected for the Short Film Corner. Midge is a tortoiseshell cat from Wrose, a district of the city of Bradford in the county of West Yorkshire; she had come originally from a local rescue centre and was 12 years old at the time.
Midge loved to follow her owner, parish councillor Martin Humphreys, wherever she could, and she started following him when he walked to the local shops. She would wait on a wall outside for him to finish his errands, then jump down and sometimes start the journey back to his cottage by running. One day Martin decided to run with 
her – but found he couldn’t overtake her! If he ran faster, she accelerated too. “She always wins our races,” said Martin. She was a familiar sight as she accompanied him when he went jogging.
When he won £1,000 in a competition at work, he decided to use it to make a children’s film called The Great Race, featuring himself and Midge running one of their races. The film was made by Motus TV of Oulton, near Leeds; Martin wrote the musical part of the soundtrack, sung by a children’s choir.
Martin flew out to Cannes for the film’s screening, while Midge was looked after by a friend at home in Wrose. His dream was that a major film company – perhaps even Disney – would see the potential for a full-length children’s film starring Midge, and he was convinced it would be a success.
He already had ideas for it, including having Midge run against Olympic 100-metre champion Usain Bolt. He was convinced Midge would win!
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For a short video which was on the BBC news of Martin and Midge racing each other click on this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8046419.stm
This article first appeared in the summer 2012 edition of THE CAT magazine and has been reprinted here with kind permission from Patrick.
Here's the link to the actual short film made by MOTUS TV (given with kind permission):
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