SAD NEWS

Dear all,

On the 11th of September in the evening I got back from my holiday (Barcelona and Valencia) only to get a phonecall first thing in the morning of the 12th that shocked and saddened me.

The nurse of the local vet's was going to work and found Tom lying dead between two parked cars -he'd been run over that morning. Tom was a wanderer, and he was enjoying going out for longer and longer adventures, but unfortunately he never got a chance to get streetwise enough to avoid cars...
Interestingly -and spookily- that very morning Will was miaowing in the most unusual way (distress calls, rather than his usual "feed me" miaows) and Kevin and I wondered and asked "What's this about, what's wrong?". There clearly was something wrong with his brother, only we still didn't know. Did WILL know?

Kevin and me are missing him lots, and Kevin and I felt that Will, who clearly misses his brother, could do with a friend to keep him company. So we went to Batterse D&C home and we are soon getting a beautiful little tabby-ball-of-fluff kitten.

I will be a few interesting weeks with the process of keeping them separate until they get used to each others smells (I'm sure there will be a few sniffs from under the door). The little one will be kept in a room upstairs for a while.

So there you are. We're just hoping the new kitty doesn't turn out to be another wanderer, and if he does, that at least that he becomes streetwise very quickly -for all our sakes!

We are expecting a call very soon to go and pick up Tom's ashes from the vet. At the weekend we got a lovely skimmia (red-berry bush), because Tom always wore a red collar, and we will be planting it in the garden using Tom's ashes.

I hope all this doesn't sound too sentimental to you, but I know that if you've ever had a pet you'll understand how sad it can be to lose one. It's amazing how much they make you love them the little buggers!
Fran