1985 - June 2005
Lady had previously belonged to an older couple who were emigrating to Spain. They had named her Trevor! The couple at the last minute were told they were no longer able to bring animals to the apartment, so sadly, after owning her for 18 years, they had to make the tough decision to leave her behind.
Lauren (feral queen) contacted me shortly afterwards and told me the story. She said that she was going to keep her but she didn't get along with her other cats and seemed very unhappy and would I be interested in taking her on. I decided I had to meet her.
The next weekend myself and my sister-in-law Chris went to Lauren's to visit her. On first seeing this old cat I was smitten. She was sitting on a pillow in a pen with huge sad green eyes and looking very fragile and unhappy. I opened the pen to stroke her and she growled and hissed and was not at all delighted to see me! This didn't put me off - I was sure that I would be able to give her a loving, comfortable home for however long I needed to. I brought her home that day.
For the first few weeks I fussed her, fed her and made her a comfortable bed in our spare room. There she stayed, coming down just to feed and hiss at the other two cats! We re-named her Lady. Shortly after she came to us, I found a lump on her belly and took her to the vets. They told me they would have to operate to remove the cyst. She came through the operation, the vets giving her the all clear, and I bought her back home.
Not long after this (obviously feeling happier), she ventured out into the other rooms finding every last piece of sunshine she could to lie in. She had finally made our home, her home. Every night when we went to bed she would jump up and snuggle under the duvet covers with us.
For the next 12 months Lady couldn't have been happier.
Shortly after arriving back from holiday in June 2005, James my partner, thought that Lady wasn't her usual self. I agreed that she seemed to be moving slower and seemed to be sleeping more, but what concerned us most was that she was having trouble lifting her head when she was walking. We took her straight to the vet, who confirmed that she was dehydrated and ran some other tests for kidney and liver. The test results came back and considering her age we were told not to worry and she was given some antibiotics. Over the next few days she seemed to be brighter and enjoyed her chicken and ham treats as usual.
The following weekend I noticed that again she was deteriorating and I thought that maybe her time with us was drawing to a close. That night I combed and brushed her, fed her favourite food and gave her all the cuddles in the world thinking that this could be the last night she was with us.
Sunday morning we woke to find her lying in our hallway and she was obviously finding it difficult to breath. We contacted the emergency vet and made our way there. The whole time Lady was with us she never meowed; in the car on the way to the vets she did her first meow. After seeing the vet he confirmed that she had fluid on her lungs and that they would have to keep her in to drain off the fluid, but not to lose hope. We left her there telling her we would collect her later on. This was when Lady meowed for the second time.
I phoned the vet at 5.30 to check on her, they said they would call me back. When the call came it was not what we expected. The vet said that he had checked on her before calling us and that she had passed away. I was devastated. He said that she had curled up into a ball to go to sleep but had never woken up.
We still miss her deeply; she was such a character and so loving and affectionate. Even though it has taken a long time to get over her death, what takes that pain away is knowing that for the last 12 months of her life we gave her a loving home.
We still think about those two meows she made on the last day she was with us and I am sure it was her way of saying goodbye to me and James.
Lady has inspired us to take on other older cats and I urge anyone who has ever overlooked an older cat to think about what they can bring to your life and what you can bring to theirs - no matter how short a time.
Esther Roche, September 2005
