July 1997
March 2009
September 2000
Ady and I adopted Malice and Candle from the RSPCA way back in 1995 after we’d lost two kittens to the busy road we live on. We’d felt we wanted cats but wanted to ensure whatever cat we gave a home to would be given the chance of a better life by us. We had several visits to the RSPCA and had noticed a pair of black cats hissing and spitting over the course of four visits in over a month. Eventually we decided these were the cats for us. Unfriendly, not very pretty, semi-feral and with virtually no hope of anyone taking them on. They would not let them go to a home with children, other pets and a whole list of other rules.
We brought them home and they lived for the first month or so under bookcases and sofas, only coming out when we were asleep or out. I remember the first time we managed to stroke one of them, Malice. They had been in our house for over 8 weeks by then. Very, very gradually they ventured out, accepted affection and attention and became more like pets and less like trapped wild animals.
Then Malice took against Candle and Candle moved into our bathroom. Malice would just attack her every time she tried to venture out. She was fed in the bathroom, had a litter tray in there and her whole world was that small room, with company every evening when we had a bath, or when someone went to the toilet! But just as they had changed from when they first arrived Malice mellowed, Candle got bolder and eventually she came back out and they would often be found snuggled up together.
Bringing Davies home was a big trauma for them both, but they got used to him. We moved up to Manchester which was a fairly big deal with the two cats in carriers for the six hour drive. Scarlett being born was something I think they were resigned to!
Malice was my cat and Candle was Ady’s in the beginning but when Scarlett got older she became the chief owner of all the pets. After Malice died Candle was still a sprightly cat with lots of life and enjoyed being outdoors. She also became more of a lapcat which had previously been Malice’s domain.
In the last year she has steadily declined and lost her sight. Up until a month ago she was still negotiating the stairs and would come and wake me up every morning and scratch at me to stroke her. The last month has seen an almost daily lessening in her quality of life. She had all but lost the use of her back legs, her balance was off and she would regularly stumble about, one of her eyes had become infected and required daily bathing and in the last week she had become all but incontinent. Still we struggled with the decision but having confessed that I was semi-hopeful of finding her passed away in her sleep I realised I could actually make that decision now.
So this morning I talked at length to the children, we all cried, we all discussed it and I rang the vets to make an appointment. Candle spent her last hour curled up on my lap in the sunshine while we all stroked her. She’s been with Ady and I since way, way before we were parents, back when we’d only been together a short time. I’m happy to think we really did offer her a full and happy life taking her from that small cage at the RSPCA all those years ago. She’s now buried in the garden next to Malice, in one of the sunniest spots and we’ll remember her as the cat who was fiesty, friendly, alive and was a lovely pet to have shared our home for 16 years.
Aw ((Nic)) :-(.
Comment by Michelle — 22 April 2010 @ 10:38 pm