Sylvester was our neighbour’s cat who decided he much preferred living at our house most of the time. The first morning we woke up in our new house he was on our kitchen windowsill to say hello:

Notice our cat Meg peeking out from inside?

He was a real friendly fella and it didn’t take long before he was a regular visitor to our house. He fitted right in with our 3 cats as well, there was never any fighting between them. He especially bonded with our male cat Jinx – the 2 of them used to race about the garden trying to catch each other, it was so funny.

Meg, Jinx & Sylvester

The 2 mates – Sylvester & Jinx

We found out a while ago how old Sylvester actually was – he was 16 this year, although you could never have told until recently.

We didn’t always get on with our neighbour as he told me off for feeding his cat. But if they lock the poor cat out in all weathers, and he prefers to lie in our house I wasn’t going to refuse him.

He really was so affectionate, he used to come bounding in at night time and jump right on top of us and do that kneading thing cats do with their paws and give the loudest purrs. He used to like sleeping on a cushion we had at the top of the stairs for him, or on our bed with some of the other cats.

Recently, however he would only sleep on our stairs and was a lot quieter. He also got very skinny – he looked like a bag of bones near the end, so gaunt and unlike his previous self. He still came in every night and ate his breakfast and slept for most of the day on our stairs but we could tell he was going downhill.

At the weekend, I opened the front door and he was lying outside. He wouldn’t come in for any breakfast so I brought his bowl out to him. He barely sniffed at it, then gave me an awful almost pain-filled look and tried to miaow. He couldn’t even make a sound. Then he ran off. I kind of knew after that that we wouldn’t see him again.

We hadn’t seen him all week. Then last night our neighbour came to the door to ask if our cats wanted the rest of Sylvester’s food. They had taken him to the vets for tests and it turned out he had cancer and they had to get him put to sleep yesterday. I was touched that the neighbour came over to tell us, especially as we hadn’t really got on in the past. He was quite upset too, and I told him I was very sorry and that Sylvester was a lovely cat.

Of course I cried when I found out and ruined my makeup as I was just about to head out for the night. I still feel sad when I think about him and how much pain he must of been in. I’m now wishing we had approached our neighbour when we first saw the signs of him being unwell or took him to the vets ourselves. Maybe we could have spared him a couple of weeks of pain.

It really hit home how much I care about my animals. I had a big cuddle with each of the 3 cats last night and the 2 pups. I don’t know how I will cope when anything happens to one of them. But I just have to enjoy them at the minute.

One of my favourite memories of Sylvester is when a nasty cat from the neighbourhood was fighting with one of our cats and Sylvester ran over to scare the other cat away. I thought that was so sweet!

Here are some more piccies of him:

He really was a part of our family and he will be missed every day… R.I.P. Sylvester xxxxxxxx

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a lovely long weekend, whatever you get up to. We are having a BBQ tonight so hopefully the weather will be good…!

We had a massive thunder & lightening storm last night – did anyone else? I was more scared than the animals lol..!

I thought I would share some pics of all our animals enjoying the sunshine:

Chester caught relaxing on the sun lounger!

Chester & Holly chill out

Holly enjoying her bone

Pretty Meg

Jess enjoying the sun

Jinxy Boy!

Happy Easter from Holly & Chester!

Talk to The Tail by Tom Cox

(Meg is grumpy cos I haven’t written a book about her!)

If you own cats you will know that they are real individuals – sometimes exasperating, sometimes cute-as-a-button but always entertaining! In this sequel to Under The Paw, Tom Cox continues his tales of cat ownership. I thought I was bad with 3 cats, but Tom has 6 to contend with!

Cats aren’t just balls of fluff that eat and sleep and sometimes bring you a dead mouse. They are like little people, each with their own distinct personality and quirks. Tom really understands and “knows” each of his cats and it is so lovely to get to  know each of them and read about their exploits.

It is not a book solely about cats however. Tom tells stories from his childhood, covers his marriage breakup (after which he “lost” 2 of his 6 cats), tells of his growing love for dog walking, and tells funny anecdotes about his parents (his dad sounds hilarious btw!).

His great love of his cats (and all animals) and his feelings about his breakup reveal a much more sensitive guy than his witty stories would have you believe!

I really hope there is a 3rd book to come, I can’t wait for the next installment to see how all the cats have been getting on and to see if he has given in and actually got his own spaniel! Regretfully, one of the much loved stars of the books, Janet, died recently. I found myself crying at the news and at the touching post that Tom wrote about it. That is surely a sign of how good his books are – you really feel like you get to know each of his wonderful cats and mourn their loss allmost as you would your own.

Tom has a great blog HERE, he is on Twitter @tomcox75 and regularly gives away signed copies of his books to followers!

My verdict: 5 out of 5 kitties! Go & buy it!

Week 47 of The Gallery and the theme is Expressions. I chose to use one of our cats, Meg as my model for this! I followed her round most of the morning trying to get some good shots of her. And after some magic by Gary on photoshop (I have no idea how to use it!) here are some of her expressions:

We have, from top left to right – michevious Meg, sleepy Meg, content Meg, alert Meg & grumpy Meg!

Note to Jess & Jinx (my other 2 cats): I am not playing favourites here using Meg and not you as my models – it is simply because she photographs much better! You two just come out as a mass of black fluff!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Gary & I are finally feeling nearly 100% again after our “return from holiday” bug lol. I’ve had tons of work to do on our website but hopefully normal posting will resume soon!

In the meantime here are some pictures for Week 36 of The Gallery, where the theme is Black and White. I originally thought about getting a really nice, moody black and white image for this and I was desperately thinking of something black and white that I could photograph.

But then, I realised I have 2 lovely black and white specimens around me every day, so why not use them?!

The first is Jess. Or Baby Jess as she is known, even though she is the oldest of our 3 cats she is the smallest – she almost still looks like a kitten! Here she is messing about the stairs, giving her mummy some attitude!

Next, we have Sylvester. This is next door’s cat but he has been adopted as an honorary member of our household as he visits here for food daily and sleeps here most nights! This photo was taken on the very first morning that we were  in our new house. I was delighted to see another cat on our kitchen windowsill and ran out to take a photo – if you look carefully you can see our cat Meg checking him out from inside!

Head on over to Sticky Fingers where you can see the rest of the entries HERE. If you want to join in you will be most welcome, plus there is a prize on offer this week, a lovely canvas print of your favourite photo!!

I completely forgot it is Week 32 of The Gallery today – so here is my 2nd post of the day (a first for me!!).

The theme for this week is Show Me The Funny – all about pictures that make you laugh! There are 35 entries already today – pop over to Sticky Fingers and check them out! Oh & there is a prize this week as well – £50 of M&S vouchers!!

I have chosen the following picture of our cat Meg. She disappeared one day and we couldn’t find her anywhere. I was just starting to get worried about her as she is always around when Gary called me into the kitchen. And there was Meg right on top of the kitchen cabinets – nearly touching the roof! She was quite content in her little spot! We got this great photo of her mid-lick – it makes me laugh when I see it.

It’s Pawpawrazzi Thursday – which means I have to post a one of my favourite animal pics and link back to the Pawpawrazzi blog HERE! Join us, and link up a picture of your animal!!

So here is a funny pic of my gorgeous cat Jinx. He is an all black cat so I thought it was fitting seeing as it is Halloween this weekend (oooooh!). He is having a big massive stretch & yawn in this picture!

Jinx is a big softie and I love him to bits!