On 28th August this year our old cat Prickle breathed her last. If she had lived a few more weeks she would have been 18 years old - and we had her from a small kitten. She came home from the RSPCA with us aged 14 weeks; my son (aged 11 at the time) said from the back seat "Mum, she's very prickly!" which is how she got her name.

She now sleeps under the pink camellia bush in the back yard where she often used to lie, not far from Tiny who was her little friend for a short time several years ago. We had Tiny for less than 6 months but she grabbed our hearts in a way that our other cats haven't.

Even though we have 3 other cats we miss Prickle. For the last few Christmases I have said that I didn't know if we would still have her next Christmas - and now we don't.

So now we have Belle The Beautiful Neurotic Ginger Girl, Binky The Noisy One, and Bianca The White Bugger.

It doesn't matter whether a pet is big or small, they are part of our lives and our families and hold a special place in our hearts.

Cheers
JennieG