It is always so very sad when one has to have a much loved pet put down but two days ago it had to happen and, alas, our miracle cat Rousell is no more. Watching her wasting away was just as distressing as having to put an end to it and it all seemed to happen so fast. One day she was a bonny bouncing little cat and suddenly she could no longer eat, a cortisone injection and force feeding her on special invalid food couldn’t help. In a few days she was skin and bone and wobbling about on rickety legs when she had the energy to move at all though she still, just the day before her death, went outside to sit in the sun. We will miss her funny ways, rolling on the carpet or out in the courtyard wanted her back scratched or her tummy rubbed, nestling in the crook of my arm and purring away as I sat at the table reading. We called her our miracle cast because by rights she shouldn’t have even been alive, having suffered such a traumatic accident as a tiny kitten. As it is she was only nine and should have had a good few years ahead of her. She was called Roussell because at our friends Russell and Margaret’s son’s wedding she was under our table scrounging away, Douglas picked her up, fell in love, and was given permission to take her. We could hardly call her Russell so as the other cats were Bridget and Hortense, she became Frenchified as Roussell. On Tuesday when Chris and Douglas took her to Michael he said he felt she wouldn’t have lasted the day anyway.
So our menagerie of eight has been reduced to three; cats Keppel and Betty, Roussell’s kittens, and dog Merrill. She is getting on a bit now and suffering from rheumatism so I think she might be the next one to go. We have buried so many animals in the past thirteen years, dogs and cats; the bottom of the garden is a regular pet’s cemetery.
While on the subject of death I read in a letter to The Athens News that in Greece you have by law to have a priest at a funeral though, at dinner the other evening, this was hotly disputed. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true, the church being so much a part of Greek life, but what if you are Jewish or Muslim? Maybe you have one of your own persuasion instead.
As this has been all about Roussell, I still find it hard to believe she has gone, I don’t feel I want to add anything more today.