Thinking

Over the last several weeks I've been thinking a lot about my cat Fluffy.  He has been with us for about seven years.  He adopted us.  It was summer time and he was skulking about our yard.  We had taken care of two other strays (Handsome and Double) but that ended up not working out so well.  So when this new feline showed up I honestly tried to ignore him.  I didn't think R would tolerate another feline friend.  I was wrong.  It was R who finally said to me "Will you just feed that cat already?"  So we fed him outside.  I'm pretty sure it was a Friday.  The new cat was skin and bones.  The entire weekend this new friend spent on our back porch; sleeping, eating and drinking.  He has turned out to be a wonderful blessing in our lives.  He is beautiful and well mannered and due to his coat style he came to be known as Fluffy.  A year or so later we found out that our Fluffy had once lived across the street  with another family who had basically put him out of their home.  His name had been Eliot.  Who names a cat Eliot?  Anyway I spoke with his former owner and he had no interest in reclaiming his cat.  So Fluffy has been with us since then.  Most of the time he has spent days and nights outside with occasional sleepovers in the house.  Anytime we would come home or spend time outside Fluffy would appear from the woods or under the shed and spend time with us in the yard or even inside at times.  This winter has been different.  He has spent a lot of time inside.  He sleeps inside every night.  Lately he has looked very old to me and when I pat him I can feel all of his bones  It makes me sad as it reminds me of my childhood cat Dale who died from feline leukemia.  Fluffy's coat even resembles Dale's coat when she was sick.  I tend to catastrophise things but the behaviors I've seen from Fluffy; accidents, more time sleeping,  waking me in the middle of the night and inside bathroom accidents lead me to believe that he is sick.  He is such a big part of our family that I dread what might happen.  I guess it is just a wait and see game right now.  I'm hoping that when the warm weather comes maybe we'll see some improvements.

Peace!