Peter and I still have ‘Dulcie’ moments when we walk into a room and expect to see her in her favourite spot, or think we hear her coming down the hall clutching Marshall mouse in her teeth.

But no, we are mistaken. The house seems so empty without her.

How can a small cat, who in the end weighed no more than a bag of sugar, leave such a huge gap in our lives?

Answer, she had the heart of a lion; boundless determination in the face of adversity; and a personality that would melt the sternest heart.

We laid her to rest in the garden along side her sister and brothers and placed Marshall mouse in the box with her. It just seemed the right thing to do.

And so a 5 cat era that started in 1990 has come to an end. I am proud to have shared my life with them.

Along the way there has been lots of joy and laughter and a few tears too.

This site will continue in memory of Dulcie, a small orange cat who made such a difference to our lives. We will never forget.

This website will continue in her memory.

September 1993 – 16.12.2009

I’ve just been watching Dulcie through the window, sitting in the garden in the pale winter sunshine. She’s bright, she’s alert, she’s interested in what’s going on around her. If I didn’t know about her illness, I would think she was perfectly  OK.

I fear I’m kidding myself, things can’t go on like this indefinitely. So I try to take one day at a time, and today is a good day.

I left Peter in charge of Dulcie, or perhaps I left Dulcie in charge of Peter. I’m not quite sure which!

Anyway,  on my return they had got along just fine without me. Dulcie seemed perky and happy and was eating well.

Do you think cats miss people? I like to think they do and that Dulcie missed me for those 3 days.

When her brother, Linus, was alive she adored him, and they slept together in the same basket every night.

Since  he died she has never returned to that basket, and now uses the one downstairs.

I think she misses him, and I also think if he walked in the room now, even after all these years,  she’d remember him.

I don’t know if that makes me sound a bit  sad, but to be honest I don’t care. It’s what I believe and that belief makes me happy.

We took her to the vet earlier in the year as she had lost her appetite, was losing weight and seemed under the weather. Several tests, two 32 mile round trips and £160 later, the results were ‘inconclusive’.

Their best guess was that, due to her age, her kidneys and liver were not functioning to their full capacity and as a result her body was not getting the best out of what little food she was eating. She weighed just 2.2kg.

To cut a long story short we have been going to the vet once a month since April, where Dulcie is weighed and given an injection of slow release anabolic steroids to help her liver and kidney function. This has undoubtedly perked her up and improved her appetite.

Although things went well initially, at her last visit two weeks ago, her weight had dropped to 1.8kg.

Having said all that, her day to day life is still pretty good. She goes out each morning to do ‘cat’ things, which the other day included catching a blackbird. ( I managed to get it off her and it flew away, hopefully a little wiser for the experience)

That’s the beauty of not knowing you’re poorly. You just get on with life as normal. Perhaps we humans could take a few lessons from our feline friends.

If the worst happens at least we’ve given her one good, last summer. But all such thoughts are banished from my mind as I try to decide what to buy her for Xmas!

I’ve been looking after cats of all shapes and sizes for the last 30 years, but there is still one thing that I can’t fathom and that’s their eating habits and   food.

Cat comes into kitchen asking to be fed.

You open a brand new pouch of cat food and place a small portion in a clean dish.

Place dish in front of cat, which sniffs at it disdainfully and wanders off into the hall with vague indifference.

You take the dish of food and place it outside.

Cat wanders nonchalantly outside, and does one of the following.

(a) Walks up to the food you’ve just placed there and begins to eat it enthusiastically.

(b) Walks up to the really old food that you put out last night for the hedgehog, who for some reason hasn’t been for his supper, and begins to eat it enthusiastically.

WHY?

Because of it’s nocturnal behaviour Dulcie has never seen it, but all that changed a couple of nights ago. Perhaps she was out late, or perhaps the stray came early, either way their paths crossed.

I first became aware of this when I looked out of the window to see the two of them sat facing each other, about 6 feet apart, in that kind of tucked in sitting position that makes them look like a hen sitting on a nest.

At first they seemed to be staring each other out, but gradually each began to move their head and perhaps look away for a few seconds, presumably to see if this prompted any reaction in the other. But it didn’t.

After what seemed an age the stray finally had enough, and began to do what we have named over our years of cat watching, ‘inperceptibles’. You know what I mean, moving whilst trying to appear not to move. It’s a very ‘cat’ thing.

Gradually this strategy got the stray to a position where it felt it could move freely, without fear of attack, and off it went. Dulcie, meanwhile, sat her ground. She might be a pensioner with a bad leg, but she wasn’t having any truck with this incomer and there was no way this interloping upstart was going to get the better of her.

When she eventually came in her tail was bushed out to 3 times it’s normal size, a sure sign that she’s excited. Well done Dulcie, still repelling boarders at her age.

It wasn’t walking, running or hunting, it was just wandering randomly and aimlessly through the long grass.

As it drew closer we called to it and eventually it made it’s way into our garden. It was a white/grey Persian with only one eye.

It’s random wanderings continued and as we watched it we began to suspect that the sight in it’s good eye might be poor. We also wondered if it might have been hit with a car as it seemed unsteady on it’s legs.

Whatever the reason, it was disorientated and scared.

After some more coaxing we managed to get it into the garden at the front of the house, and gave it some food. The question was, what to do next.

Dulcie had made her feelings for it very plain, so bringing into the house was not an option, leaving it alone outside wouldn’t have been right either, as by now we were pretty convinced it was blind, so what with the nearby road, and the other stray who visits each night, I didn’t hold out much hope of it seeing morning.

So after tea, leaving the cat with a saucer of food in the garden, I went to see my neighbour. She’s into anything with 4 legs, so if it did have a home roundabout, she would know.

Sadly, she didn’t, but did suggest I try the bungalow next to the pub on my way home.

The lady there, who I don’t know said she did have 2 Persians, but that they were both ‘indoor’ cats. However, when she went to check on them it would seem that Precious must have sneaked out and was now AWOL.

We hurried back to our garden, where thankfully Precious was exactly where I’d left her some 10 minutes earlier.

It turns out she was born with only one eye, and the sight in her good eye has deteriorated and she is now virtually blind. As an indoor cat this isn’t too much of a problem, but she must have found the outside world very scary indeed.

Precious and her mum were reunited, so this is one story with a happy ending.

There’s a nice post script to this story.  Precious’s mum called round at lunchtime today with a card and a box of chocolates.

The card read “Thanks for taking very good care of me. Lots of love, Precious”

Whilst he was eating I would stroke him and talk to him, but he did not respond. It was just a means to an end as far as he was concerned. He tolerated my affection in return for his dinner. Each day when he had finished eating, he would just wander off without a backward glance. I didn’t mind this and would have happily continued the arrangement indefinitely, but it was not to be.

One day he came and didn’t want his food, he just ignored it. All he wanted was for me to make a fuss of him, of course I was happy to oblige and he responded just like my own cats.  After a little while he left, food untouched.

I never saw him again after that.

Make of that what you will, but I know what I think.