Sorry about the lack of updates and replies folks – I’ve had a busy (and rough) couple of weeks, and I’ve been writing but it’s just not flowing (but it’ll be great when I get the stuff I started finished, I promise!)

Particularly rough is that over the weekend I went to the Humane Society to volunteer and found out my favourite cat, Nestle, had gotten quite ill and was euthanized on advice of the vet. I was planning on adopting her if she was still there come this fall.

I feel particularly bad, because her story is sad from start to finish. She was removed, along with several other cats, from a home where she was not properly socialized. Not feral but very fearful and anxious. She never really got over her timidness the entire time she was at the shelter (almost 2 years) and was in and out of foster care to no great improvement.

She did not show well in the shelter. She spent most of her time in her cage in her little house, burrowed under blankets, so half the time you couldn’t even tell that there was a cat there at all. Yet, despite her shyness, she was an extremely sweet, nice cat, who loved being pet and cuddled (as long as you didn’t pick her up.) She was tiny and a beautiful chocolate brown. She had a small growth on her ear that I’m sure further hindered her chances at adoption, but that just further endeared her to me.

I know it’s a bad idea to get attached to animals in a shelter, but I did – she was going to be my baby, and this hurts. At the same time, I’m also glad that she was loved by at least one person during her difficult, too short life. I hope she’s at peace now.

Today was Bart’s last day. It went much like Tiger’s, with a little visit outside and then a calm ride to the vet. The vet examined him – we we’re as sure as we were with Tiger that it was his time, and Bart has been accident prone and sick off and on throughout his life, but was also incredibly tough and resilient. In the end my mum and brother decided that it was the right time to let him go. He’d had incontinence and chronic pain (managed with meds) from a condition that the vets weren’t able to diagnose but had lately started to deteriorate further. The vet also believes that he was blind (he was very sick last year and had some problems with his eyes at the time) though we never would have guessed – he navigated the house so perfectly, jumping on the furniture, moving around the rooms and chasing the other cats, if his senses were diminished at all it never showed.

Bart was a very fine and special cat, and came to us in a special way. One day my father reached behind a shelf in our house to plug in the fax machine and discovered a tiny ball of fur. Bart’s mother Rosette, a stray in the neighbourhood, snuck into our house and gave birth to her single kitten in our office. They lived outside in our yard until we made the decision to adopt them and bring them inside.  Bart was a tiny, adorable kitten with a little triangle shaped tail – we never would have guessed that he would grow into the longest, skinniest cat I’ve ever met.

Aside from his mother, Bart was never fond of other cats, but he loved people. He was always extremely affectionate, cuddling, purring, laying in your lap and climbing under the blankets with you. He was the perfect bed cat. When he really got relaxed and happy he would purr like an engine and drool like crazy.

He was always an energetic and daring cat, but extremely accident prone. If cats have nine lives, he certainly took advantage of the supply. He loved climbing trees and leaping on to roof tops, and would often travel to the roofs of the neighbours’ homes. He would go onto the sunroom roof and then paw at the bedroom windows asking to be let inside. With all his antics he incurred a few injuries, including tearing off a dew claw. We were extremely lucky not to lose him in another accident – we found him one day laying prone on our back porch, with the other cats sitting around him. Some how he’d managed to drag himself up the stairs with a shattered pelvis (the vet suspected a car accident.) He surprised us many times throughout his life with how tough and brave he was.

Bart was our sweet, handsome boy. We enjoyed 14 great years with him, though it was not long enough. We love him and will miss him very much.

(Unfortunately I’m short on pictures of Bart on this computer.)

Tiger went to the Rainbow Bridge today. He spent his last day sleeping on the bed with Lili, went outside with my mum for a bit and then had a calm, quiet ride to the vet. Laying on a blanket, he was given a sedative and then the final injection. It was all very peaceful and quick. My mum took him home to be cremated at a later date. It looks like he may have been developing oral cancer on top of his other medical issues (arthritis and renal failure) so it was definitely the kind, humane thing to do.

He’ll be very much missed – Tiger was a handsome and sweet cat, devoted to his mum and with a gentle temperament. He loved being brushed, having his tummy rubbed and sleeping under the covers with mum. While he fiercely defended his territory from strange cats (and had the battle scars to prove it) once he’d accepted a new cat into the house he had infinite patience for them, even tolerating swats and ear biting from Bart.

As a stray kitten he was so painfully shy and fearful. Without his bold sister Cali to lead the way, he may never have even gotten up the courage to come out of hiding and eat the food we put out. When it started to get cold, we had to trap him to bring him inside, as he wouldn’t let anyone near him. He spent several weeks hiding in the basement before we were finally able to coax him out enough to have contact with him. He retained his cautious nature around new people, but once you had his trust he would shower you with affection.

Tiger was one of the first cats to join our family. He taught us a great deal about living with and caring for cats, put up with our mistakes and helped make us better cat owners.

We love you and we”ll miss you Tiger. Thank you for sharing your life with us for 17 wonderful years.