Lle Llywela

My parents' little Chess cat died this morning. She was very elderly and had been increasingly frail and senile for a long time now, but she was the feistiest, most indomitable little cat that ever lived and had been with us since before Chelsea, so it's hard to believe she's gone. She spent most of her life being cantankerous and reclusive, but had mellowed tremendously over the last two or three years, as she grew old and senile - but always retained that feisty spirit. Just this summer, she spent a wonderful afternoon dancing around my sister Deb's dog Amber out in the garden - you could practically see the thought bubble above her head: "I reckon I can take it, yeah, I can take it, I can definitely take it. Okay, pounce!" Whereupon we had to hastily intervene because the dog was six times her size! She was such a tiny cat, never reached full adult size, but her personality was enormous!

This is Chess when she was young and healthy


Chess enjoying the garden this summer


And Chess as she was just last week - in her last couple of months she decided to live permanently on this table, alongside both her food and the radiator, and rarely moved off it.


On Christmas Day she was still lively, ate loads of turkey and cried for more. But by Thursday she was starting to decline and then over the weekend she stopped eating. There were no vets open to take her to, and they couldn't have done anything for her anyway. She wasn't in any pain, she was just fading away. She spent her last few days being cuddled and loved and was perfectly content.

So now my parents' household is cat-free for the first time since feline leukaemia swept through the neighbourhood in the mid 1980s. They have lost three cats in as many months - both Chloe and Ginger went missing in September/October and have never been found, poor darlings. :( It has been long enough now that it seems clear they aren't going to be found. So here is one last picture of those two, as well.


Goodbye Chess, Chloe and Ginger. We loved you.

But to end on a happier note, here's a pic of Deb's dog Amber making herself comfortable on my sofa over New Year!

The Chloe Cat is back. :) She'd been stuck in someone's garage. Apparently they knew she was there since Saturday, but she was too thoroughly spooked to let anyone near or venture out, so they just put water down. Then when she finally allowed herself to be coaxed out, they read the ID tag and called to let the folks know where she was. So, big relief all around.