Sorry for your loss of beautiful Cilla FL. We found a kitten in similar condition at around the same time as you found Cilla, just after we moved to Ireland. (The first of a few strays & rescues we ended up with!) The strays have such a fighting spirit dont they
Cilla was a lucky girl for finding you and enjoying a blessed life. Her pictures are beautiful, such a striking face. It’s lovely you all enjoyed the cabin together again, although bittersweet im sure.
RIP Cilla, big hugs to you FL x
Tears here too; from the moment you found her as a near dead frozen kitten you gave Cilla the most wonderful life, as you have with all of your pets. Beautiful girl, rest in peace with your friends.
Thanks for all the replies, and likes/reactions, they're such a comfort.
The only thing Cilla felt for eating last morning was mackerel, she was sitting in some faint morning sunshine outside when I picked her up, and put her in the transport. I knew how sick she was when she didn't voice any complaints about possibly be taken home to the city again at the start of the journey. When I put her on the vet's table, she just lied down, but the first calming injection actually had the opposite effect, and made her temporarily perk up a little.
The first blood vessel burst after the nurse had already got the needle in, so the vet nurse had to redo the process on the other front leg, and when she apologised for it, I said "You couldn't help it" and I have no idea why I thought of it, but I continued with "At least you didn't poke a needle in anyone else as you see in film comedies."
She said "That actually happend recently to another nurse! We where holding a cat, the cat did some unexpected weird movement with the leg as the nurse was getting the needle in, sending the needle flying, and when we looked around to see where it had landed, we saw the owner sitting frozen, with the needle stuck in one of her arms! And she wasn't holding her cat because she have a needle phobia!"
I said "Wow, I thought such things only happened in films". She said she probably shouldn't have revealed that, but I thanked her, it really helped take my mind of things a little.
Blomma came and wanted to sniff Cilla at once when we came back, I could tell she had been through this before, but when Fröjdis saw her lie on the ground she lied down with her neck around Cilla's neck and pushed her face into some places of Cilla's face, seemingly trying to get some reaction/trying to figure out what had happened. Later my mum saw Fröjdis come back, and sniffed all over Cilla, and when I came to take Cilla to bury her, Fröjdis came, and again put her neck around Cilla's, I'm not saying that's what she did, but it almost looked like she was giving her a hug.
The cabin felt empty without Cilla, and now that we're back in the city, this house feels empty without her. She was never much for being petted, sometimes 3 strokes was acceptable, sometimes more, but more often less. But for a period of her life, Cilla suddenly decided to be a lap cat. It was during the time my mum went through cancer treatment, then she decided to join our late Cornish Rex Berta (that died 2020), and lie in mum's knee almost every evening. Once mum was well again, she stopped.
She never forgot the starvation, even though we for the first years tried having food available 24/7. But that didn't work so well with Berta, besides, it made Cilla fat. However, Cilla didn't so much demand to get fed, she was simply just so happy every time she once again got food.
If I woke up around the same time to go up for a pee 2 or 3 nights in a row, I would open the toilet door, and she sat waiting for me to see if she could get an early breakfast. She learnt which times my alarm was likely to go off, and I've often woken up 10-15 minutes before my alarm went off by her simply sitting, looking at me with hopeful eyes, because maybe I would soon wake up, and if I was awake, she could get her first breakfast (she often ate 3-4 breakfasts before lunch).
Every now and then, she might start to purr of happiness when I gave her food as if she hadn't seen food in days, most likely to happen at a breakfast feeding, but occasionally she also did it later in the day, though having eaten several times before that day. So many years of me keeping her well fed, and yet what she went through back as a 4 weeks old kitten sat so deep.
In the city, when Cilla had eaten, slept or done something else she thought was important, she usually wanted to go in to my dad's room, to silently talk to him about it. She expected him to acknowledge her with just the right amount of chin scratches that she wanted at that moment, otherwise she would bite him.
To really finish off yesterday properly, I managed to get stung by a wasp in a fingertip. It's still a bit swollen, and feels a little funny. But that discomfort is nothing to the pain of Cilla being gone. She was such a special cat, I miss her so much, and my parents miss her maybe even more than me.
Cilla is irreplaceable, and I've spent a lot of the day crying over her being gone, but something new can also be good even though it can't replace what was, so I've also been looking a little at kittens for sale, and at rescues, preferably wanting something ready to collect around the end of June, early August.
I'm also so grateful that we at least still have Blomma, and Fröjdis. Even though Fröjdis proudly came in with a living slow worm (a legless lizard) before 11 o'clock this morning.
I've not been on here much recently so only just seen your sad news FL. What beautiful memories you have of her. She was doubly lucky firstly to survive her ordeal as a kitten and secondly to have landed on her feet with such kind owners. Hopefully the happy memories will ease your pain soon. Hugs