I'm glad the move went well Garbomaniac.
We lost Freddy a week after the move, he had been poorly and I hoped that once we'd moved he'd be more settled. He certainly seemed happy when he arrived but then I think his illnesses caught up with him. I get comfort that even though he was ill he kept going long enough to stay with us. He could see the boxes that I kept packing, he knew something was wrong. I hoped with his illness (kidney failure) that he would expire peacefully at home but it became apparent that we couldn't put off a visit to the vets. He wasn't in pain but declined slowly and I didn't want the kids to see him like that much better they remembered the cat they loved. Freddy came out from under the bedt o say bye to us, just before he got really bad, I knew he was saying goodbye and I cuddled him for ages on the bed. How Chris and I got to the vets I'll never know, thankfully we were both able to go and offer each other comfort.
The worst bit was having to tell the children, Libby cried solidly for a whole night when he died. All we could do was cuddle her and cry with her. The only remedy that we could think of was another cat which we promised once the conservatory was built, so early September but that didn't do the trick.
We are now the proud parents of Charlie, a ginger tom cat aged 8 weeks who was sold to us as a female and as a female she had the democratically elected name of Lola. Only when Chris and I were playing with 'her' at night did we think her nether regions looked suspicious. When we first clapped eyes on her we thought she had a boys face (long nose, not an exact science). So I had to phone the vets the next day to get tips on sexing my kitten (it's all to do with the spacing of holes and i had to text the information to my hubby because I was at work and it isn't the kind of conversation that's professional
) Lola became Charlie because of a children's programme here called Charlie and Lola, not democratically elected but chosen by Joe but hey, I'm not going to complain am I?
Charlie is nuts, we are in a three storey house and he charges up and down stairs, he loves a ping pong ball on the laminate floor and Chris's metal tape measures. He was born in a house with 4 kids so he isn't scared of ours unlike our other cat who just does not do kids. He has the most beautiful markings and gets on with Claude our 13 year old jellical cat very well which surprises us because Claude is not the most generous with his territory and has had to put the young pretender in his place, after all his tail is not a toy and his stomach is not there to break Charlie's fall. I shall be posting piccies soon.
He's taken away a lot of the pain but I still get caught wuth tears in my eyes. Freddy was really cuddly, a people cat, a shadow and he was very vocal, he'd and meow until you took notice and he shared my hobby of curling up and watching a good movie. We plan to get a plaque for his resting place, Libby chose the words.
RIP FREDDY ? - 27-7-09.
CUDDLE CAT AND OUR BEST FRIEND.
FROM YOUR FAMILY.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin