Last June, while Jeff was visiting friends in Melbourne, his beautiful black cat disappeared following the worst stormy night of winter. He often went awol for a few days, so we didn't really worry for the first week, but as the weeks went by, we gradually came to the realisation that he wasn't coming back. I stopped going down into our bush for fear of finding his bones. When I woke in the middle of the night I would lie awake pondering his fate. The not-knowing was so hard, and eventually, when I had finally accepted that he was dead, I came to wanting to find his remains, just so that I knew.
Eventually, seeing that not only did I miss Shadow, but so did his sister Ng Tong,
I started thinking about a new kitten. I procrastinated for a few months, but then a friend said they had kittens needing homes: her daughter works at the local vet clinic, and she had adopted a pregnant, unwanted (but very beautiful and sweet-nature d) pregnant cat that had been brought into the clinic.
After much umming and ahhing, I eventually decided to adopt a sweet little boy who we named Spike. He is bold and brave and beautiful. He is fearless and has the poor dog in a state of confusion as he marches up and chews poor Bob's tail!
Ng Tong is gradually getting used to him, though she spends most of her days outside or in the garage - so much for Spike being a solace for her loneliness!
Spike has a mate however. It seems the bush telegraph is real and working well, in our bush anyway:
Yes, we got Spike on Friday 15 January, and on the morning of Monday 17th January, as Mac was sitting eating his breakfast, in walked Shadow - seven months after his disappearance!
P.S. A day later and I feel like there's hope that the cats will eventually all get along okay together:
No comments:
Post a Comment