This happened a while ago. Just after Christmas. Couldn’t post about it, until now.
I lost my beautiful baby boy cat Fester. I fenced the perimeter of my land and there was just a bit left to do between our house and Hayley next door. She didn’t mind Fester coming in and out of her garden. I didn’t mind either because she has a big gate like I do preventing him from going out the front. This day she had been putting her bins out and the gate was open. It’s not even a busy road. It does have it’s share of boy racers.
Anyway he was run over outside my house. I picked him up and he was gone. His neck fell backwards it was obviously broken.
I have never been so affected by the death of a pet. I was in bits. I remember coming round in the night (not sure if I was actually asleep) thinking ‘what is that noise?’ then realising it was my sobbing.
I rang the urchin’s Dad, I’m gonna call him Lurch for the purpose of this story, and begged him to drop whatever and come home now. Probably only ever asked him to do this twice in eight years. He did. The three of us had a little ceremony in our garden where we buried Fester.
Let me just explain the ‘grey’ thing. I have grey eyes and when I first met Lurch I told him my life was ten shades of grey too. He has always called me ‘Miss Grey’ and when I got Fester he would say “Look at you, with your grey eyes and your grey cat and your life to match” So I was not surprised when he suggested getting another cat. A grey one. Now I would have said yes but I was broken. I knew it would be good for the urchin but it was too soon. I wanted to turn tragedy to triumph for his sake but I just couldn’t. I declined. I did say “the only one I could have would be Fester’s brother” Now, I am not sure if you guys will recall when I found the kitten, there was another one (grey too) that we couldn’t catch. Those cats were moved on and I gave up going back there to search.
Well Lurch went on the hunt. I had no idea. He found out the cats had only moved a few hundred yards to some scrub ground belonging to a school. There are three people we know who live on that road and Lurch roped them in also. In fact he put a bounty of £50 for whoever could catch this grey nine month old kitten. After ten days he raised it to £100. It was our mate Chad who first noticed him and started putting food out which was tricky because this particular cat would only visit alone or occasionally with his mother. He seemed an outcast from the others. It took Chad a few days but eventually coaxed him into his kitchen.
I would not have encouraged any of this and knew nothing of what was going on behind the scenes. In fact I only said it to end the conversation thinking it was an impossible task.
So, a couple of weeks ago I had a ‘surprise’ when Lurch turned up with this grey cat. This grey cat who was a bag of bones. This grey cat with only one eye. Fester’s brother.
I was really shocked but not at all angry. How could I turn away his brother when he so badly needed help? He was starving, he was scruffy and he had one eye and a scar down his nose on the side where the eye was missing.
I frontlined him that day but decided not to take him to the vets for a few days as he didn’t seem at all bothered about his eye. Don’t know how he lost it but it was not recent. Those first few days all he did was sleep, eat and hide under my bed. I found some dried food that is 80% chicken, I have been giving him lactose free milk too. Within 24hrs he started to clean his coat up and he has been filling out since.
I have worked hard to make friends with him and he has really adapted well. He still runs away from the urchin and Lurch but that is because they keep trying to pick him up. Like Fester, he is very much MY cat and follows me around the house, he goes belly up for a tummy tickle and he purrs when I scratch behind his ear. I haven’t taken any pics of him yet, but I will post them when I do.
I am grateful to Lurch for embarking on this ambitious plan. He really did bring me the ONLY cat that he could, and in some ways I feel like we have turned tragedy to triumph. We saved his brother. I still miss Fester, but having his brother here has taken the edge off. I used to come home from the supermarket with red eyes after avoiding the pet aisle. I don’t do that anymore.
Oh, and I named him THE ONLY name possible to call a brother of Fester – GOMEZ!
