Cats

With hindsight, I should never have taken another kitten from the farmer that Riley had come from, but Mr Roberts was inundating the rescue centre with litter after litter and to be honest I didn't really put two and two together back then. I did everything I could to try and help, even organised free neutering vouchers for all his cats. Other than go there trap them myself and take them to the vets I couldn't have done any more, but there is no helping some people. Riley was a mess when he came in, tiny, skeletal and matted, my heart just went out to him. He arrived at Blanik on the 3rd of July 2012 and blossomed into the most stunning young cat. Sadly following surgery to remove a tumour in Jan 2013 Riley died. A bill of over £1,000 and no cat was hard to take. Riley's death will haunt me forever, in his short life he's gone from rags to riches ... but honestly, he hadn't started to live yet! 

Through Sharon at the vets Isla had arrived here in Feb 2013 - her story is well documented and thankfully now she's always home! 

In June of 2014 Mr Roberts arrived at Freshfields with another litter of manky, snotty kittens. The kitten

room was already full and the family initially had to go into a small pen. No matter how many times you told him about phone calls and waiting lists, well he never listened and we'd end up trying to juggle kittens. Sending him away with the kittens was just not an option. So there is Junior, bang smack in the middle - he was here two days later. 

Junior grew into a beautiful cat, long, tall, slender and sleek. He never carried much weight and as he grew out of kitten hood and forgot about the hungry days of his youth be became quite fussy with food, well cat food anyway. Junior was a thief, he'd take anything off your plate, and if you left the kitchen door open, well the consequences were predictable.  When there was chicken, or worse still Turkey in the house, Junior was like a man possessed, though to be fair he wasn't much better around any meat, or anything that he grabbed off my plate. I've never fallen out so many times with any cat over thieving in my life, so when he rejected chicken I knew there as no coming back. 

Jamie will no doubt miss his cuddle buddy, they always squashed in on the chair together - Jamie washing Junior and Junior getting stroppy before peace prevailed and they slept the day away. My neighbours will miss their barn rat hunter, but I won't miss the bodies he bought home with him ... well done but leave them where you killed them please. Dave recently told me that Junior shredded his bin bags too - he knew it was him not Jamie or Choo - but he said, well I don't mind! 

It's hard to believe that it only took 20 days for that tumour to grow from something you could only just feel to the size it was now. I'm not sharing the photo of it on here .. well not now anyway, but I will keep it for reference and information. We will miss our little odd ball so much - RIP  "R Junior" - You Have Been Loved.