Farewell Buddy

We had to have our dear little Buddy put to sleep yesterday. He had been fine. In excellent health and condition and as I began the evening rounds, he followed me into the cats’ play den. I turned on his favourite laser toy, carefully pointing it towards the corner of the room, where he kept jumping up at the wall to catch the light. Later on, my husband was supervising the cats’ biscuits and Buddy had a large meal. Then, he went into the dining room and started crying. Knowing something was wrong, I immediately rang our vet and drove him in, where thankfully, we were seen straight away.

Our wonderful vet returned a few minutes later with grim news. Buddy must have had hereditary hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a blood clot had broken off and lodged over his back legs. He was already paralysed and in a lot of pain. Sadly, we’ve experienced this condition before and I knew I had to make the hardest decision, which was also the kindest thing.

We had Buddy brought over from Bulgaria just over six years ago. Initially, he was going to be fostered by a friend, but then she decided to keep him. Sadly, ill health led her to contact me a few weeks later asking if we could take Buddy on and so we brought him home, where it has to be said, he lived the best life possible.

He adored all our other cats and would happily wash them or play with them. He loved toys, especially the bed toys, as he would leap high in the air to catch them, getting extra praise if he scored a goal. (Batting the toy into the cat bed on our bed). He loved big Kickaroo toys and small plastic Crazies, but most of all he loved to sit in cardboard boxes and chew them to bits. Several years ago, I bought a huge supply of boxes just for this purpose and a new one was produced as soon as the current box had been turned into a pile of soggy bits.

He was bright enough to figure out that the receiver for my wireless mouse could be prised from the desktop port. If my mouse ever stopped working, I only had to look towards the study door to see Buddy running off with his new toy.

He adored his Bulgarian girlfriend and would pin her down several times a day to be washed. She’s going to miss him. One good thing is that Buddy must have slowed down a little bit over the preceding weeks and Vicky is now used to chasing Bubu or Tarzan. As I type this, the two kittens are playing hide and seek round the furniture in the front room.

As for us… we are going to miss the most incredible cat I have ever known. Loving and trusting, he was also bright and simply a joy to have around. Right now, I’m not sure how we move on, but I made a promise to Buddy that we would look after his friends and we will. Six years were far too short and yet we made memories that will last a lifetime.