Oh, Eliza, I'm sorry poor Minty is gone.

One of my favourites of your posts is that one in which you described your husband dancing around the kitchen, waving a dish in the air and singing "Chicken! Chicken!" while the cats thronged his ankles and howled. It just won't be the same as a duet.

Is it my imagination, or are tomcats more vulnerable to disease than females? Most of my ladies have lived to advanced ages, but I've never had a tom who made it beyond 13 (at best guess). Kidney disease, crystaluria, pancreatic disease -- it's quite the list. But Perdita, a foundling kitten who lost her mother before she was weaned, lived to be 19 despite chronic thyroid problems, and Lucy, who came to me as a stunted stray, made it to the age of 16 -- and finally died of cancer.