Chapter Twelve

So life went on and we enjoyed our swimming so much and our rides in the car. The woods were my favourite where we could hide behind trees and then chase each other. Sometimes Becky and Dean would take us out. One day they took us for a very long ride in their car and found an even bigger lake and we swam in that.

I was sad when we started to lose our cat friends. Muffin was the next one to leave us. Boss and Mrs. Boss had no idea how old she actually was because she was a rescued cat and adult when they had her. She got very sick and then, one day, she was not there anymore.

I was saddest of all at losing Jasper. Jasper was my special friend next to Jesse. He could curl up with me and sleep. He would always rub his face against mine and purr. He would lie in Mrs. Boss's arms like I had seen people carry human youngsters and if Mrs. Boss asked him for a kiss, he would lick her nose. She was often find him curled up in her place in the bed. He would roll over if asked to. Jasper always acted much more like a dog and I think he thought that he was one! Boss and Mrs. Boss were very sad. I watched another hole being dug in the garden and all the humans including Becky and Dean standing there whilst the hole was filled in.

Our animal family was gradually shrinking. Flicky was the last to go. She was a rescue cat as well but been adopted by my humans when she was a kitten. She had been thrown on a rubbish heap tied up in a plastic bag and all the other kittens had died. She was the lucky one. Boss and Mrs. Boss gave her a home when she was about three months old. She had survived a very bad accident when a neighbour had run her over with her car. Flicky was on the pavement at the time but the neighbour lost control or her vehicle. Flicky was very ill for a long time with a fractured hip joint, fractured pelvis and ruptured bladder. The vet really did not think that she would make it and for two days it was touch and go. Mrs. Boss nursed her devotedly when she got home and almost taught her to walk again little by little.

The vet had warned that because of her injuries she would not have a very long life. For once this clever man was wrong! She outlived all the other cats bar one.

There came a time when she started to lose weight and only took tiny morsels of her food and slept a good deal. One day she laid down in a patch of warm sunshine in the sunlounge as it was called. Mrs. Boss tried to tempt her with some food but she just laid her tiny head on her feeding bowl and closed her eyes. Mrs. Boss sat with her all day and as evening came on covered her with a blanket and still sat with her. Then Boss said she needed a break and she must go and eat. When Mrs. Boss went back, she had slipped away. I had walked out with her and put my nose against my old friend. She was cold and stiff. She was not there anymore. She was twenty-three years old. She had been with Boss and Mrs. Boss even before Bonnie.

This hit Boss and Mrs. Boss very hard and I know that Mrs. Boss wrote about Flicky on something she called her journal and many people were touched by it.

So now, from seven, we were only three. Myself, Jesse and Tinker. The house seemed very quiet but we still enjoyed ourselves and I was soon in for a big surprise