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Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Friday, June 10, 2011

Death of an old family friend

This is a tribute to an old family friend, I'm very sad to write this post and I don't want to be too morbid about this but my old friend "Fatcat" died yesterday. My son Simon brought him home many years ago while he was still at school and we have never been really sure about how old he was but it must have been very close to eighteen which is a ripe old age for a cat.
He was a wonderful cat with a lovely way about him, he was so well fed that he never bothered about chasing birds. He had no problem with coming to get his own food if we were cooking something that he liked.
He particularly liked to eat mussels and I would often bring a few home for the two of us to share, he would have absolutely no compunction about stealing those!
He was definitely attached to me and would spend a lot of time close by, either on my lap in front of the tv or next to me while I was on the computer.
We also had a couple of games that he would enjoy playing, especially in the evening when I got home from work.
He deteriorated very rapidly, his kidneys packed up and when I took him to the Vet there was nothing they could do for him, he had to be put down. I am not ashamed to say that I cried for my old friend and I will miss him.

6 comments:

Canajun said...

Pets have a way of insinuating themselves into our lives to such an extent that they truly become "family". And as such we grieve when they die.

18 is a good long go for a cat, and so he had the full measure of his 9 lives. But still, you will certainly miss your old friend.

Geoff James said...

Sincere condolences Andrew. As Canajun said, our pets are as much family as the rest of us. I grieved and shed tears when our 18 year old cat was put to sleep. I'd like to think that at least in part, it's a measure of our humanity.

Hope you have another little friend in due course - we have 2 now who are a joy to have around.

the rider said...

Thanks guys, yes there is already another little cat - we are both pet lovers but as we are away riding most every weekend we don't feel it fair to have a dog again, cats seem more able to take care of themselves for short periods and there has to be a pet around.

Janet (dh) said...

Oh A & J what sad news...what a lovely old man he was going to miss him rubbing against my leg and stealing my chair!!
Hopefully there lots of mussels in cat heaven!!
xx Jan (dh)

Janet (dh) said...

Oh A & J what sad news...what a lovely old man he was going to miss him rubbing against my leg and stealing my chair!!
Hopefully there lots of mussels in cat heaven!!
xx Jan (dh)

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about that Andrew and Janet - he certainly was a character!! for sure
Never could believe that he didn't chase your wild bird friends until I saw it for myself - but then again he was well fed and cared for by you guys
Go well
Dick