My wife and I have always had cats – folks who know me may remember the comment I often make that I love my cats more than I love the vast majority of human beings.  Whilst I  say it with a smile, I sometimes think there’s a large amount of truth in that statement, particularly after watching the news on TV…

Last October we had a new arrival – Georgie (named by my God-daughter) turned up out of the early evening darkness and took up residence.  We had no idea where she came from, but she was in  bad state – skin and bones, matted and dirty fur, starving, cold and tired.  Within a few days it was obvious she was going nowhere, and our ‘boys’ – our two male cats – found they had a new housemate.

The photo on the left was taken a month or so after she joined us – she’s fatter and more ‘together’ there – the grey bits of fur are where we had to cut off some seriously matted areas which quickly grew back.

We had no idea how long she would last.  We knew she was old and probably had a few health problems, but she kept defying the odds.  We first said ‘She won’t manage it to Christmas’, then it was ‘Won’t manage the winter’.  She did – she also took to wandering around to our next door neighbour and sitting on her lawn, getting fed in two households.  Despite her age she tackled the cat flap with gusto, leapt up and down on to tables, helped to type Tweets on computers, took the phone table as her bed and became one of the family.

About 10 days ago she became less active and her habits became quieter – this wasn’t too much of a surprise as she did this occasionally.  Over the last few days it became clear she was not herself and so a trip to the vets was arranged yesterday, where it became clear after tests that she was a very poorly lady indeed and that she probably only had a few days left with us.

We decided to let the vet put her to sleep, and went back to the vets to be with her – it was typical that as soon as she saw us she jumped up and purred. She left us very quickly, very peacefully.

It’s astonishing how big a tiny cat with us for only 8 months could leave such a big space in our hearts and lives.