This is normally my favourite time of year, but this September has been really stressful for a lot of reasons, not least because we’ve lost one of our cats, who we said goodbye to last week after a very quick decline. The loss of the little tap of paws beside me when I open the fridge, that soft little meow asking for some chicken so very insistently but still so polite; his refusal to sleep on any of the cat beds I’ve ever bought, preferring cushions and clean washing- and his prized napping place of an antique cooking bowl I keep on the kitchen counter top…
The confusion over his sudden disappearance for our cats and dogs is evident, and they have looked for him every evening, and it’s heart-breaking I can’t explain to them where their oldest friend has gone, when my other cat calls for him at dinner time. The constant little friend we had for the past fifteen years; through several house moves, through bad health and good, through stress and happiness- a listening ear and a glance, a slow blink to communicate everything so clearly. We will miss him.
