Our lovely lass, Lily, has gone to the great scratching post in the sky :-( She was by far the cleverest cat we ever had. She could open the front door and let herself in although she never shut it behind her :-) She loved to be with people. Particularly people who had bacon! She adopted us some 15 years back when she took residence in our outside utility room and refused to leave. We took her to the vets then to get her sterilised and checked out before we took her in and they said she was somewhere between 1 and 2 years old so she was knocking on in cat years.

It is only in the last few days it became obvious something was wrong. She would not come in apart from for brief periods. She hid herself in odd places - classic cat defence mechanism. She loved food before but did not eat much over last weekend and in the last day or two would only be tempted by best roast turkey. Not daft are they. She did not seem in any pain or even much distress but there was something wrong. We took her to the vets and had to leave her for tests as the vet found a lump in her stomach and she had a high temperature. Sadly, while they ran further tests she lay down, started to pant and just slipped away. The vet confirmed it was cancer and we are just thankful that she did not suffer. When I have to go, I hope it is as quick and I know nowt about it as well.

RIP Lily. We shall miss her and even miss being woken up at silly o'clock by her bouncing across the bed. I will of course keep all the fond memories. Our other cat, Molly, may miss her too but I don't think she will miss being bopped on the head or bum by Lily as she minds her own business :-)