When life is coming to an end.

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

― Thomas Campbell

Once upon a time, I saw a cat in my garden eating bread, I’d just thrown out for the birds. I was shocked because bread to me was the last thing I thought cats would eat.

The young cat was thin with bright questioning eyes and very timid. Over the weeks, I started noticing that it seemed to spend most of its time in my garden.

If I had the kitchen door open it would pop its head in the door. I would speak to it and it seemed to listen, but run off, if I moved towards it.

My husband and I called the cat, Felix because it looked like the cat in the advertisement for cat food. Over time, Felix would become a little braver and some mornings we would find it asleep on the patio in our wicker chair.

As the cat spends so much time in our garden we began to think it must be a stray.

Today, Willow decided to look out the window.

Had its owner moved away and left it behind?

Whenever my husband and I arrived home and reversed our car up the driveway, the cat come running along the path towards our garden.

I said to my husband, “It seems to recognize our car.”

Then I began to notice that it always came from the same direction, and decided to find out if the cat was indeed a stray. I inquired about the cat at the house where I thought it lived.

The young woman said “She’s my daughter’s cat”

I told my husband the cat wasn’t a stray. Whenever I was in the garden the cat would appear, and if I was in the kitchen with the door open she would come in. It took the cat, whom I now call Willow, because it was so willowy, four years to trust us. She decided to adopt us. For a long time, she never meowed and we couldn’t stroke her.

Slowly, she let us touch her head, then her back, but never her belly.

Willow soon moved in with us to become part of our family.

Love you, daddy.

After fifteen happy years together a visit to the vets told us that Willow is at the end of her life shattering our hearts. Now, we are making more of a fuss by leaving the heating on high rather than turning it down as Willow feels the cold more. If I’m upstairs working, I check on her to make sure she is okay.

At the moment, she isn’t drinking enough but she’s eating. Rather than hugging the radiator, she moved around the room more, and yesterday she sat looking out the window, which was lovely. Willow doesn’t seem to get comfortable any more and is more wobbly on her legs.

This morning she had a fuss with Russell before he left for work.

Willow’s favourite place.

Every day is another day with our little princess and we feel so lucky. Willow will never spend another summer in the sun on the patio roof keep an eye on everyone.