Family pets

When Teddy, our wonderful 14 year old Golden Retriever died in 1999 we vowed never to have another pet.  Losing him was like losing a family member and I recall the pain morphing from emotional to physical and back again happening for a number of months afterwards.

Ted was a handsome dude; a laid back sort of guy and very sociable.  He was always happy when my daughters had their mates round so he could sit in the middle of them as they strummed guitars, or just laughed and chatted.  He didn't care which, he just enjoyed the fuss and attention.  It was easy to include Ted in stuff like that he just went along with everything.  For him it was even better if there was a drop of Newcastle Brown ale shared with him in his bowl, although I'm given to understand he passed up on the spliffs!

I've included this photo borrowed from http://dallasdoglife.com as it's almost Ted's double with the same fur colouring and nice black nose.  The facial expression is one he wore a lot; happy, pleased, joyful.  But Goldies are like that and such a pleasure to own.

After Ted's death, we went many years without a pet, and would probably still be without one now if it hadn't been for a little stray cat who appeared on my younger daughter's doorstep one day.  She was pretty persistent so my daughter having recently lost another cat, decided to take her in.  It quickly became apparent that this little cat was in a pickle!  Within a matter of weeks she'd given birth to 5 kittens in the wardrobe, so as she'd arrived in a pickle, Pickles became her name.  She was less than a year old herself, so in effect she was a teenage mum.  One of the kittens didn't survive, but the other four went on to thrive and become lovely little creatures.  We didn't want to see them go out of the family younger daughter kept mum Pickles and one kitten (Jasmine).  Elder daughter took one and called her Trinity.  She now lives in Malvern, Worcestershire, and we had the remaining two which is my gorgeous Polly and her brother Rastus who sadly got run over a while ago.  Rastus was  a beautiful Tabby and very loving but a free spirit and kept his own hours.  I always feared he wouldn't see old age.

Polly however, is a homely girl.  Very pretty as you can see here - yes this is her!

We adore each other and have snuggles first thing in a morning before I have to get up for work.  She has the world's loudest meow though and even the neighbours can hear her when it's dinner time!

Because Polly doesn't venture very far or get much exercise she's got a bit curvy so that's a bit of a concern.  None more so than this morning when she didn't wake me up.  I just thought she'd overslept (rare for her) but she later showed signs of being off her food, and was lethargic.  We took her to the vet who couldn't find anything directly wrong with her.  I was worried that her being a bit overweight was starting to impact on her health but it appears not.  Its possible she may have a water infection so she's being treated for that.

My fingers (and everything else) are well and truly crossed that it turns out to be nothing much.  Having a poorly cat is as bad as having a poorly child.

I bet you've been there haven't you?