Jack (aka Capt. Jack) came to us just after New Year in 2008, almost seven years old. From the start he was absolutely adorable, very placid, yet playful and brought tremendous joy to myself and family. He really wanted to make friends with the resident cat Quidditch (also the same age) but being the Battle
Cat that he is Quidditch was having none of that. As Jack didn’t ‘do’ stairs they were able to live alongside each other quite happily as long as Quidditch could get upstairs without having to go past Jack. All was going smoothly until the summer arrived and Jack was sniffing around the garden and got scent of Quidditch. I did warn him not to go looking for him but it was an urge he couldn’t resist – but probably wished he had afterwards.
Well, Quidditch had long lost patience with this interloper and the next thing I knew he came flying out from the shrub he’d been sleeping under and chased Jack around the garden. It looked so funny, this great big black thing trying to look small being chased by a ball of black and white fluff with paws flailing about trying to smack Jack up the rear. After that they both seemed to have a healthy respect for each other and although never close buddies they wouldn’t try to hurt each other, especially when the goose was cooking on Christmas day and they’d sit side by side waiting for their share!
During the last year of Jack’s life we had another cat come to join us (as a kitten) and we named him Midnight. He adored Jack who happily returned the favour and they had some lovely times playing together – I have a brilliant video clip of Jack and Midnight playing hide and seek in the living room. Due to his size Midnight was always going to be able to stay hidden but Jack got to be very good at sniffing him out.
Sadly my beautiful boy struggled with arthritis and when his back legs wouldn’t support him properly last year (2013), after consultations with a lovely vet who did home visits, we felt it was the right time to let him go. I couldn’t bear to see my boy suffer so gave him time to say goodbye to all his friends and then said goodbye myself. As a family we chose to have him cremated and his ashes returned in a scatter box. We haven’t decided where he will be long term but definitely not far away from me.
Thank you so much for choosing me to have such a beautiful, loyal and brave friend.