13 years ago in February my Granny had to move into sheltered accommodation that did not allow her to have pets. I had just bought my first house here in Malmesbury and Sooty came to live with me. Today I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life and let her go. At the grand old age of 21 and blind, her back legs had finally given up on her. She was a grumpy, mad and wonderful cat that I’ll miss so much, I have cried today the most I can remember in my adult life.
She was not a lap cat, she would sit next to you on the sofa at the most, but she did like to sleep on Kylie’s hair, pinning her to the pillow when she woke. She would wake us up in the middle of the night, soaking wet almost to tell us it was raining, once towel dried, she would disappear and we’d here the familiar sound of the cat flap as she went back outside. She tolerated Thor but took pleasure in sitting on her food cupboard and playfully ‘batting’ him on the nose when he tried to say hello. She tolerated the children when they arrived, I remember a frozen Tallulah calling out to me when, as a 1 year old, she was held to the spot by the same cupboard with a single claw in the scalp, Sooty nonchalantly looking the other way, “Well I warned her”, you could imagine her saying.
She loved to chase a wine cork on a string, ‘Sooty Fishing’ we used to call it. She loved her Cat Mint pot in the garden and would fiercely defend it from anyone. She loved to have her tail pulled and tickles behind the ears. She was quiet mad, climbed into every box, especially open jigsaws, drank milk every day and slept on a plastic bag, especially if it was in a box!
I’m not a religious person, I don’t know what happens next, but if the reading I gave for my Uncle at my Granny’s funeral is correct, she is crossing that rainbow bridge now, back with Granny.
I’m going to miss you Mad Cat – Miaow Miaow.
