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In 2007 we lost our Little Puss. She was such a mighty prowler and hunter and such a lithe, lissom creature (especially when compared with poor old Puzzle, who's been on arthritis drops forever) that we expected her to be around for a long time. But she developed cancer of the mouth and went very rapidly downhill. She had increasing trouble and pain eating. She became listless and oblivious to her surroundings, even hopping onto laps where Puzzle was already ensconced. Having always been a "beside" cat, she became very snugglesome, so at least we all (including Helen, here on a visit) had lots of opportunities to be close to her till the end.
Dac was extremely sad to lose the cat he'd had for eleven years, and wanted to distract himself with a replacement as soon as possible. So off we went to the R*S*P*C*A and came home with Sambo (shelter name Martin), a big, beautiful, young black cat. The R*S*P*C*A told us to keep him separate from Puzzle and introduce them gradually, which we did as best we could, given that this is a small and rather open house. Puzzle spent the next few days mainly in Dac's room, gradually increasing her time in the rest of the house. She and Sam appeared to be adjusting to each other. They ate together. Sambo would lie beside Helen while Puzzle was occupying Helen's lap, for hours at a time. Then suddenly everything changed.
It was about three weeks after Sambo arrived. Helen had gone back to Holland and I was back in full appointment mode, out at least half the time during the day. I was trying to get Sam used to going outside, and I was trying to teach him to use the cat door. One day when I was leaving for an appointment, he wouldn't come in, so I had to go and leave him out. I hoped he'd take refuge in the cat cage if he needed to. I was gone for a couple of hours and he was fine when he eventually came in except that, from that moment on, he started monstering Puzzle. (The R*S*P*C*A later theorised that being left outside made him "go territorial".) Puzzle, being a very old girl these days, didn't cope at all well with being stalked and loomed over, and showed her displeasure through incontinence. I, being an old girl too, and hampered by physical limitations at the best of times, didn't cope with that at all. Puzzle deserves a bit of peace and quiet in her twilight years, and so do I.
So, very sadly, we took Sambo back to the R*S*P*C*A - where we were treated like criminals, publicly berated, humiliated, and generally abused. The "executive" who was dealing with us had Sambo whisked off without giving us any opportunity to say goodbye. "We don't think you treated him appropriately."
She stated categorically that the only cat we should have attempted to introduce into Puzzle's life was a kitten. Where was she, the day we bought Sambo? No one mentioned anything about kittens then, when we were forking out nearly $300. If they had, we'd have known straight away that we couldn't have another cat. Kittens have been a contentious item round here ever since the days of Minou the Merciless. I'm in no doubt that I'm not well enough to be looking after a kitten. But there hadn't been a whisper about kittens.
Madame La R*S*P*C*A very much enjoyed telling us what bad cat owners we were, and she was in raptures refusing us a refund, despite the fact that Sambo was so beautiful he would have been snapped up by the next person who saw him. "We don't think you kept them apart long enough." We did our best, but if Puzzle was never going to adjust to any addition other than a kitten, it wasn't going to work anyway.
We've been good customers of theirs for decades, and good cat owners, but I will not be going to the R*S*P*C*A ever again. When the time comes for us to adopt another cat, it won't be an R*S*P*C*A cat. We'll go through our vet next time. It might even be cheaper (which wouldn't be hard!) and the attempts at guilt-tripping you into buying expensive cat food couldn't be any worse. And we won't have to take out a membership and deal with ongoing begging letters (the irony of receiving these after what happened with Sambo is fairly bitter). The R*S*P*C*A seems to have become very commercial. I suppose it makes sense that an organisation like that would employ a headkicker as a manager.
So we - mainly Dac - lost two cats this year, which has been rough. Puzzle is on her last legs, too, but then she has been for ages - she's at least 14 now. She has just survived another operation and has approximately one (1) tooth left, but she's doing fine. Without Little Puss, she has had to find her (little squeaky) voice, having no one to speak for her at mealtimes now. The other day I saw her sitting like a catboat in the cat cage tunnel, as if the tunnel were hooked up between the house and the cage (where it no longer fits, because of the ramp) and she could waylay her old adversary. She still sits in the laundry doorway in the dead of night, waiting to pounce.
This page created 08 July 2002; last updated 17 December 2007