Fluffy. 13 Sep 2002 to 7 Nov 2019

So this has been a harder post for one to write than most of the pontifications one one has espoused over the years.

More than a week has passed since the sad day of the passing of one's feline companion - The Tiger. - whom one began taking temporary care of for Svetlana for just a few months back in 2005 and when the plan for shipping overseas fell through, well that was okay.

She of the fluffy physique had surpassed 17 years (nigh 85 in human servant years) and appeared to be going strong - albeit a little older and creakier with less leaping, more snoozing, and a splash of missed litter tray action - when all of a sudden one afternoon she took a turn for extreme lethargy with occasional whinging and not much interest in food.

One sat up with her overnight and she had started drinking a bit of water so in one's naive hope it seemed like it might have been a temporary illness thing - especially when she moved in for one of her infamous lap sits complete with evil eye of "don't you dare try to get up".

Lap sit complete with evil eye.

However in the morning she became more and more listless and at the end One was patting her and talking to her for what turned out to be the final 5 minutes until, after some toe scrunching responses to One's attentions,  she had a big stretch and released her last breath.

It hit One harder than One would have thought but I guess a 15 year companion does get intertwined in your heart - mayhap there was a dash of Stockholm Syndrome involved - and I seemed to have an immediate allergic reaction to her passing complete with watering eyes and constricted throat.


Salsa Girl, Hulk and I said our goodbyes over the course of the morning and are now trying to get used to the empty Fluffy space in our house and our routines.

• No longer is the morning trip down the stairs greeted by a raised head and mew of inquiry.
• No longer will one be trapped under a sleeping feline and forced to watch hours of b-grade scifi and fantasy.
• No longer shall one be woken in the night by mysterious banshee screeching.
• No longer will small children fear to enter our home.
• No longer will some of those children that do enter go missing.
• No longer will she participate in gaming nights 

Gaming nights are great for finding warm places to sleep.

• No longer will she wind and weft around the legs of anyone in the kitchen.
• No longer will the house thrum to the thudding scampers up and down the hallway.
• No longer will she be found sleeping in strange places - on top of posts, in egg carton lids, in her freshly changed litter, on any single sheet of paper left out, Salsa Girl's ankles, atop a lego construction,over the corner of the coffee table...
• No longer will our residence be rife with the fear of leaving a water glass unattended.
• No longer will one have to wait for her inspections to complete before continuing with any task that involves moving furniture or opening cupboards.
• No longer will anyone lying down on the couch be greeted with the "here's a bum" manoeuvre.
• No longer will the Vet quake in fear and lay in extra stocks of band aids before her visits.
• No longer will such deep purring be emitted from simple patting and stroking. 
• No longer will those little paws reach out in delight or those eyes go squinty with the pleasure of a chin scratch.

In her younger days - sleeping in a fruit basket.

Farewell Fluffy, you kept me sane when I was a single man living on my own, and then seemed to set out to balance the ledger once you became surrounded by family.

You shall be missed and have left your mark upon me. Several of them in fact.
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