I would like today to paws for a few minutes and remember feline friends we have loved and lost.

In case you think I have gone soft, this is especially in honour of my blog friend Henry the cat, who departed this life last week, and also our former cat, Jojo. This is Jojo asleep in Hilary’s study here. Today is the second anniversary of Jojo’s death, which is still an upsetting event for my female human to remember. She was incredibly fond of Jojo who was her first ever pet, and the suddeness of events that day (taking Jojo to the vets and returning without her) is still painful to her now. I don’t think Tim feels quite the same- he is remarkably heartless about cats!

Anyway I was only a young puppy two years ago, but I remember trying to comfort Hilary at that time, who kept crying and hugging me, and telling me that I was very nice but I just wasn’t a cat!! (I knew that!) I think Hilary is really a cat person at heart, but I have helped her to be a dog lover too now.

Hilary told me about the first cat she really knew who belonged to her grandmother in Wiltshire. Telemachus (or Telle for short) was a big black and white cat. Hilary loved playing with him on their holidays there and was always excited at seeing him again, and remembers as a child being told by her mother that Gran had written and said he had died, and bursting into uncontrollable tears while standing at a bus stop in the middle of Aberdeen. Even now, many many years later, Hilary always thinks of Telemachus at that spot!

Luckily Hilary has bonded well with me now (and of course, young Monty cat who came to live with us a few months after Jojo had gone) so is feeling better now, but she still took a few minutes today to remember Jojo, Henry, Telemachus and other cats she has loved over the years.