Happy birthday Neil

Yesterday was Neil's birthday and for once he had decided to take a day off, have a lie in, a lazy brunch and generally take things easy in the pool before inviting a small group of friends over for drinks in the late afternoon .

He was particularly looking forward to brunch, as for his birthday our friends Jane and Denis had generously bought him two very large filet steaks as a treat, and he had planned his steak lunch with chef like precision.

The day before we had noticed our old cat Romey shaking her head, and we were concerned that her cancerous ear stump was starting to give her some pain. When we got up yesterday morning Neil noticed blood on the window next to where she had been sitting, and on examination we found to our absolute horror that she had maggots in that ear stump. So the decision we had been dreading was taken out of our hands and I phoned the vet who agreed to meet us at the surgery for immediate euthanasia. Neil and I were heartbroken to take her, but also kind of relieved that the inevitable decision had been made for us.
The vet was very kind and coped with us both being so upset very gently.

So poor old Neil, rather than relaxing and taking it easy, found himself digging a hole to bury our cat.
We've had a bit of a love hate relationship with Romey -She was a sitting tenant in this house when we bought it - in fact Neil always said we bought a very expensive cat and got a house free with her.

As she had lived in the house on her own for nearly two years she had no compunction in using the whole place as her personal litter tray - and she would drive us nuts by refusing to use a tray rather than any floor surface she pleased. That said she was so loving and she felt to us like a real part of the history of the house and of the story of our lives here.

When she was buried we had a chat and decided that rather than spend the day moping we should try to enjoy the day as much as possible and agreed not to tell anyone about what had happened - as sympathy was the last thing we needed and we did manage to enjoy the day more than I would have thought was possible.

It was very quiet in the house this morning without Romey demanding her breakfast as soon as our bedroom door was open. I do hope that she didn't suffer unnecessarily - I am convinced that until perhaps the day before she died she was enjoying her food and cuddles and having a quality of life.

RIP Romey.