My wife was sorting through the photos on one of her drives yesterday, and found a classic memory from a few years ago.
It was a picture she took of me on the sofa trying to eat a McDonalds. Or rather failing.
On the left is Sooty, and on the right is Billy. Neither is with us any more, sadly - all the photos in this post are about 10 years old (hence the rather poor quality).
We adopted Sooty when he turned up at the back door desperately hungry. He was totally feral, and turned out to be FIV+. Despite a bundle of health problems and never having been socialised he bonded with me almost immediately. But he could still be spiky and fierce - I used to describe him as being like the little man in the pub with a knife who'd fight anybody.
He was by far the most intelligent cat I've ever known; he recognised about 100 words of English if I kept the concepts simple, and had about 30 or 40 different sounds which had clear meanings I could understand.
Before coming to us, Sooty had spent about 18 months living out in the wild. He was very small, obviously the runt of the litter who had been thrown out at a young age. So for him, finding a half-eaten McDonalds chucked into a hedge by someone must have been like Christmas. It was his "pleasure food", and he'd happily fight me for it ! I'd go into Maccy D's and order a meal for myself, plus a burger (no bun, no gherkins, no anything else just the burger) for Sooty. Then hope I could finish mine before he finished his.
Here are a couple of other photos of Sooty. No matter how much we brushed him, he was always a scruffy cat, but he was totally lovely and the best friend I could imagine.
The second shot is when he went through a patch of ill health due to his FIV, and had lost quite a bit of weight. It made his huge fangs show up even more, he was like a sabre toothed tiger !
Billy was another strange case. He was a bit nomadic. Originally he came from a house behind us, but there were far too many cats there and the husband and wife sadly had some domestic problems that would have made it a pretty unpleasant environment for a cat.
So Billy went to our neighbours. They fell in love with him (he was that kind of cat...), but he was bullied terribly by one of the cats they already had.
So the next thing he did was come to us. He just turned up, coming through the cat flap and behaving as if he owned the place.
At the time, we had Tabby and Sooty; Tabby was mostly an outdoor cat, and was indifferent to Billy although they didn't argue, just avoided each other. Sooty didn't get on with any other cats at all, but he and Billy became instant friends.
When Billy first came to us, he was about 21 years old. I think he decided we were his retirement home ! We honestly thought he'd be with us for just a few weeks, he was so incredibly old and frail. He was deaf, and would either bleat like a lamb, shout like an old drunkard or purr extra loud because he couldn't hear the noises he was making.
Amazingly, he lasted 18 months with us. He never lost his marbles, but had terrible bad breath and became more and more wobbly as time went on. We got a ramp for him, so he could get up onto the bed, because he loved to sleep on the pillow and wake whoever was nearest up by standing on them when it was breakfast time.
He loved burgers as well, so he and Sooty would gang up on me. They'd come in from opposite sides knowing I couldn't fend both of them off. Then, whichever one got the burger, they'd take it off to the corner and both share it while I was left with just the fries.
Even though our current cats Duncan and Chester are wonderful, I still miss Sooty and Billy terribly. I sometimes think Chester is what Sooty would have been like if he'd been bought up properly !
I honestly wish our pets could live as long as an 80+ year lifetime as a human. That way we could enjoy each other fully, instead of having to get new ones every decade or so. I've never understood why cats and dogs have such short lives while elephants or the Galápagos giant tortoise enjoy such long lives.
It certainly must be genetic, but the question is why.? I read that the Bulldog has a lifespan of up to 8 years. That's crazy! Why even bother getting one? They barely live long enough to raise their pups to adulthood and beyond.
BTW, I read your post on the pain of turning BAT into HIVE, and that's exactly why I got my stuff off of Uphold as soon as possible years ago. I've never seen so many hurdles in moving your money around and was glad to see the last of them. Brave needs to get its act together and put their own wallet to good use.
Posted using The BBH Project
Thank you ! Yeah, every time we lose one, we say "never again" because it hurts so much. Then we see another kitty desperately in need of rescuing and we can't help ourselves.
I heard years ago that every animal gets 100 million heartbeats, and that how long you live depends on on fast your heart is. But I'm not sure if that's true or not !
Thanks for your comments on Brave, too.... I'm actually concerned that they might be going down the same AI dead end as Google, and drowning out real websites in the process. As a business owner, it's a definite concern, my natural search hits from Google are now practically non-existent.
!BBH
The eyes of the black one…
He had incredible eyes ! I could look into them and instantly know what mood he was in 😀
oh my gosh but that black kitty Sooty was unbelievably majestic hey. I know your pain though and I'm sorry for your loss. Losing a kitty to an incurable illness is terrible. I lost two cats to feline leukemia during 2020. Levi, who was 9 and an absolute cuddlebunny, and Bubbles, Squeek's sister, passed straight after him. They must have caught it at the same time. Levi's decline was gradual but Bubbles had a much harder time as he started looking ill on like the Sunday or Monday, but by Friday he was in full organ failure. It was horrific. Having to take two cats in a row to the vet to be put down like a month apart. My poor heart. Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!
Och ! Yeah, at least when Tabby and Sooty went it was a few months apart.
We always vaccinate, but there's no vaccine for FIV, and Sooty already had it when he moved in. We knew he'd never make old bones, but we gave him the best life we possibly could. He was a small cat with a huge personality.
If I eat, I would probably hide. Hahaha! But I can't because my furry pet knows when I am eating. She comes and looks up at me, using her eyes to ask for some food.
There was no hiding place from Sooty when I had McDonalds ! One time I tried to eat it standing up and holding it over my head between bites. Sooty climbed all the way up to the top of my arm to eat it 😂
!BBH
jeje ellos saben como enamorar para que les den xD
hehe they know how to make people fall in love so they can get screwed xD