And then there were 2........

I posted a while ago about my elderly cat suddenly getting very thin, well the old darling turned her paws up yesterday.

We came back from a combined interview for me/shopping trip at around 4pm, and were not greeted at the door by her demanding to know if it was supper time yet (it wasn't but she always did like to try her luck, on the off chance.) I went upstairs to look for her and to get changed before one of the other cats could deposit too many white hairs on my dark brown trousers, to find her in the cat basket not looking too good at all. She didn't attempt to get out, but called to me to get my attention.

I sat with her, stroking her and telling what a good girl she was, and that everything was alright. At one stage I thought we would have to call the vet as she started to get a bit distressed, but luckily she settled down. Several times I thought she had breathed her last, but the old girl kept pulling one last breath out of the bag, right to the end.

Amazingly, she had the most fantastic day the day before. She insisted that she wanted to go out, and as it was quite sunny, and I knew I would be around to keep an eye on her, I let her. (As she had seemed to be so frail lately, I didn't let her out as much as I was worried that if there were any altrecations she would not be able to hold her own). A little while later I went out to phone a friend, who only has a mobile. As calling from my landline is quite costly, I tend to call her from my mobile and need to go outside to get a signal.

Some other cat had left a small dead rodent on the drive, which Clucky proceeded to eat (yuk!) and while talking to my friend I was doing my best to ignore both the sights and sounds. Then, things stepped up a pace. Toffee, a rather handsome young ginger chap from next door, trotted past with a live mouse in his mouth, which he proceeded to drop on the section of drive to the side of our house, and then chase up and down as it tried to run away. Holding the phone and continuing the conversation, I chased Toffee off, to try to give the mouse a chance. The daft thing then ran across the front, right in front of the sun basking Clucky, who gave chase and actually caught it! I was then scuttling around trying to grab Clucky and persuade her to relinquish the mouse. This coincided with the arrival of the recycling lorry, ready to remove our embarrasingly full box. Even though the men were within feet of Clucks, she was not going to either move or give up her prize. They said to me "it's got a mouse", I replied, "yes, I know, but she might have to gum it to death as she is about 22 and hasn't got many teeth." Try as I did to save it, the old girl dispatched it.

After I had finished my phone call, my neighbour came home, and I was telling her about Clucky ending up with Toffees' mouse. She said that Clucks had popped into her house earlier while the front door was open, had a bit of a chat, (both with her and her other cats) helped herself to a bit of a munch and gone out again. (She did do this from time to time, cheeky thing!)

I think she had a good life with us, as until we had her as a middle aged lady, she had previously been an indoor cat for all her life. She took to the great outdoors (and hunting) with relish, although she was never very keen if it was raining!

Goodbye, the Cluckmeister, you were a grande dame of the feline world.