Petal, AKA “Pet the Fet,” “Scuttle Bug” or “Chick Pea.
14th August 2010 to 31st March 2018.
Let me take you back to a warm Saturday evening in 2010 when Elma (at the time unnamed) a fat female stray cat once again sneaked into our house looking for food, or so we thought. What we didn't realise (we had only had tom cats to that date..) was that 30 minutes later we would be proud staff members to five new bundles of joy, including the runt of the litter, Petal.
Up against her two brothers, the sadly missed Grey Boys and her sister Pixie, there was nothing much of Petal as she never weighed more than 3.5kg against over 6kg for her siblings (Posie is a lightweigh at only 4.5kg). However, what she lacked in size, she made up for in personality, speed and jumping ability. Indeed, Petal never walked anywhere but preferred to jog: hence one of her nicknames.
While Petal had a happy life sleeping up high: she used to love sleeping onto of the fridge freezer, on top of the book case or if it was sunny, on top of next doors solar panels, she did not have the best of health. At an early age she developed a skin complaint which resulted in excessive grooming and the lost of a lot of fur. We were able to treat this but nothing could be done on that faithful day in 2013 when we discovered that three of our kittens had caught FLV
It is to my eternal shame and regret: something I know I will never forgive myself for, that we did not consider getting the kittens vaccinated against all nasties at a young age: we had never done so with our other cats so simply didn't think of it this time. Our major piece of neglect saw first the lovely Perkins taken from us at only 2 years old: hardly any life and then his grey brother the massive Pootle at five. Together, when healthy the grey boys were two of the best looking cats ever....although I am somewhat bias.
We knew Petal's life would be a short one but day after day we woke to find her sitting by her bowl waiting for her fish in butter sauce and prawns breakfast like she did every morning: Petal refused to eat cat food and would feast in the afternoon on freshly boiled chicken along with beef slices... Petal also liked a lot of fresh water due to poor kidney function resulting in the purchase of “Petals Pot”, a plastic, er, pot which we could leave dripping so she could get water whenever she wanted.
When the end came for Petal, thankfully it wasn't drawn out, although it was clear that she had had her terminal problem for some time once we discovered she was not well.... our Vet says cats are some of the best actors in the world and will cover up pain until its often too late.
Having had last week off on leave, I was able to spend a lot of time in the house and observed that Petal didn't quite seem right. She was still eating and drinking but was taking her time over it, and she seemed to have lost her scuttle. Also, more worryingly, she did not seem to be able to lay down normally: whenever she tried, she would quickly move back to a more comfortable position. Come Friday, she was very quiet: something CBH also noted, so a trip to the vets next day was arranged.
Come the appointed hour, normally as soon as the cat basket (well one of them, we have five!) arrives in the living room, the room clears of cats. This time, there was no movement from Petal who had not eaten all day, so it was simple to collect her: Not a good sign. It was also a horrible sign when the vet examined her and went pale upon finding a massive tumour on her stomach, so much so when the vet touched it, Petal collapsed in pain and just laid there for a few minutes panting for air.
We knew that there would be no more sunny bright days blocking next doors electricity generation for Petal so let her gentle slip into the afterlife: I really hope there is an afterlife for cats as Petal certainly deserves one. Me, I deserve seven circles of Hell for not having the three lost kittens vaccinated.
20150614_080539 by
essexian, on Flickr
“Scuttle Bug” 2010 to 2018.
