RIP Fenella

In the early hours of this morning, 24th March, Fenella died after a massive heart attack.
Don't read on if you don't want details, just scroll down to tribute story. 

She had been panting earlier, and had become rapidly dehydrated, so I rehydrated her, and fanned her as she's inclined to overheat.  She seemed to enjoy this, but was plainly still distressed.  This is after midnight on a Friday night - the way cats always manage it, and anyone less ornery than Fenella I have yet to meet.  She insisted on getting off the bed and marching all the way down the corridor to use HER litter tray to do a wee; then she wanted a poo but couldn't make it into the tray.  And then she had her big attack, and died in Simon's arms.  She always was Daddy's girl. 

Here's a piece of FanFiction I wrote for James Bond, from the point of view of Blofeld's cat; I was always thinking of our Duchess of Dhobi, the incomparable Fenella when I wrote it.  I can't think of a more fitting tribute than showing a white cat in control of things. 

The Duchess

Now let’s get one thing straight, all you would-be criminal masterminds out there; I’m in charge.

So long as you remember that, we shall deal perfectly amicably together.  

You may call me ‘Your Grace’ and don’t forget to refer to me as ‘The Duchess’; it is after all only my due.

Naturally, Ernst Stavro Blofeld thinks that HE is the one who runs S.P.E.C.T.R.E. but he’s wrong.  It’s me.  I have my ways of controlling him you understand; subtle feminine charms, the way I sit on his lap and rub against him; he is as wax in my paws. 

He does occasionally make the odd stupid error of course, trying to branch out on his own without listening to my telepathically communicated instructions; like the times he WILL try to tangle with that fellow Bond.  Now it’s quite obvious that there are those creatures that look like prey but turn out to be anything but; and the Bond fellow is one of them.  Cost me any number of my nine lives that dreadful fellow has.  I bet he prefers dogs to cats.  I could tell he was trouble the first time we encountered him; though of course I was NOT about to let him know he had me rattled.

But when my two legged slave does what I suggest all goes purrfectly.

It’s only when he thinks he has a brain that things go wrong.

I ask you; how COULD he have a performance factor better than mine?  He isn’t white and fluffy and he can’t even purr in satisfaction when he has his enemy in his clutches; no wonder Bond always escapes.  The deadly emanations of the self satisfied purr are well known.

So, kittens all, remember this lesson if you never remember anything; never let your humans actually make any decisions on their own even if you permit them to believe they are in charge.  It will only end in needing a lot of washing to put right.

Fenella - not good news.

There's no easy way to put this.
Fenella has mammary cancer; and our vet said that as it's likely to come back if he operated, and with the risk of an operation to an old lady of 17+, while she was comfortable there wasn't a lot that can be done besides love her to bits and keep monitoring it and bring her in to be put down if it became painful, or ulcerated. So there we have it.  Fenella is on borrowed time. 
Mammary cancer is fortunately fairly uncommon in cats as apparently it's more of a problem than in dogs or humans as 90% of tumours are malignant [cf 50% in dogs].  I've also been told [though not by my vet] that the risk of contracting it is four times higher in a cat who has had a season before being neutered than if neutering takes place before a season, so you can bet I'll be monitoring Worrals pretty closely too.  Especially as Worrals has a voice and face shape that suggests Siamese heritance and Siamese cats are apparently more at risk. 
Fenella hasn't got a clue however and is a happy girl, she notices her skin condition more and is going to need regular steroids for keeping that under control.  She's thoroughly Frontlined for her flea allergy and can I please take the opportunity to point out that Frontline, Stronghold or Advantage from the vets are the only safe flea treatments, over the counter proprietary brands may actually be toxic as well as being ineffective, one brand causing up to one third of cats to have seizures. 
Here's a list of ingredients to avoid in products you use on your cats: List of toxins
We don't Frontline all year round either, as there's a risk of developing an allergy to that too! As we don't have central heating our house drops below the breeding temperature for fleas in the winter.
However, on to a celebration of Fenella.  Fenella loves her Dadstaff and likes to lie in his arms, either way up whenever she can corner him sitting down....

"Well you weren't planning on going anywhere were you?"

 
And of course she has to share his breakfast milk - and often insists that he holds it in a more convenient position for her.

Big mug holding a mug

We don't know how long Fenella has.  She's old enough that she might die of something else before the cancer progresses far enough to need to be put down.  I just want everyone to know that she's a dear girl, if cantankerous and ornery as usual, and she's enjoying life while she has it.  We won't let her suffer.

Inside and outside

So having not emptied the camera all month I thought you might like to see some pictures of kitties enjoying warmth as well as the outside ones...
They all like the fire but Biff is of the opinion it belongs to him.  He watches me clean out and light it and his 'fluence gets it going.  He has learned however that kitties are useful as draught excluders.

The kitties mostly sit on the woodbox.
Merlin prefers my laptop as a source of heat, besides he can headbonk me there...

And Fenella likes the warmth of laps, and to help herself to someone else's drink...

OUTSIDE!!!!

 Merlin just loves to have his sisters outside to play! he kept bringing leaves to Worrals and showing her how you can toss them up and pounce on them! Rebel is a bit nervous of outside, the ceiling is rather too high and it's all a bit scary. The first time she thought about going right back in, and then followed Jasper about the garden until he'd had enough and went in and she went with him... the second time Merlin bounced at her and firmly showed her about before returning to games with Worrals.
Can you see the tip of an ear in the one below?  Worrals loves being a jungly wallah.

Worrals loves trees.  The problem is, she can get up - but has trouble getting down.  She complains that she needs an elevator for down-ness and Trees Is Badly Designed Not To Have Elevators! she's figured out the cherry trees now, but we have a Camellia tree [that's a bush that made it] some 120 years old and it's very smooth trunked and a bit scary.  So I have to take my bad knees up ladders to rescue her...Because she sits up there wailing like a banshee until someone fetches her - or can reach high enough to pat branches to show her the way down, which she's quite quick at catching on to.

I Is Cute Up Here, But I Needs To Wee

Rebel meantime has gone back to her usual hobby of finding water to fall in.  The edge of the pond was closer than she realised and there was much wailing and a wet paw.

Jasper surveyed the proceedings from the safety of the shelves I used to harden off plants on until they were taken over by cats, being in sunshine most of the day...

No Biff pics in the garden.  He made himself scarce....


Just to add, Trooper came out of surgery successfully
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Trooper the cat came out of surgery late Friday all patched up and settling in for recovery. "He's resting comfortably and everything went well during surgery," said Gwen Samms of the animal... 

It's chilly.....

I thought I'd managed to accidentally delete a pic of Biff being unwontedly photogenic but I found it!  He and Fenella are happy to sleep cheek to cheek as you might say when it gets cold enough......

Worrals comes to have her little jacket put on in the morning - she spends most of the night in the bed with me or on top of the hotwaterbottle on top of the bed - and thinks herself very stylish.

life is a bit of a yawn at times however....

The kitties are still inspecting their hedgehog who is still awake; they helpfully knocked his tub of mealyworms all over the floor.  I had to pick them up.  I'm not really squeamish and they are dead but......
Merlin says we should get a dog to blame such things on.

Kitty quotes of the day

Kitty Quotes of the day:

‘Sister, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters’ – Irving Berlin

Worrals and Rebel like to curl up together and wash each other. This usually leads to a fight…….

‘Did you never see the picture of we three’ – Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

And as much trouble when they’re awake as Feste, Sir Toby Belch and Maria.  The kittens are a comedy act on their own.

‘To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.’ -Helen Keller 

Why Fenella should choose to sleep in the pot of grass I’ve brought in for the cats to nibble in inclement weather I don’t know but it’s lost its spring and I may have to change it……. doesn’t she look like one of those fluffy ball-shaped cacti?

‘I want to be alone’ – Ingrid Bergman

It’s his chair, he carried it home and he doesn’t intend to share it with kittens.

‘A mighty hunter before the Lord’ – The Bible

Nimrod she ain’t….. but she loves tiny scraps of foil or paper to chase around.  Here she has it in her mouth and I’m lucky to catch this because the next move is to trot up the sofa to drop on my lap with the demand that I throw it again. 

I've just discovered that the two sisters of our kitties still haven't found a home.  They are both black with little white tufts of bibs, and have the delightful temperament of all part Russian Blues, and will need to be taught to trust.  Anyone in the Ipswich, Suffolk area in the UK do contact me and I'll put you in contact with the shelter, or visit The Animal Welfare Centre on Cauldwell Hall, Ipswich. 

Update on all the kitties

Fenella is quite back to normal after her ordeal and doesn't see what the fuss is all about.

Worrals discovered an old catnip pillow I bought for Jasper a long time ago that he proceeded to ignore; Worrals and Rebel particularly get a lot of mileage out of it, tossing it in the air and juggling it with their front paws. They did let Merlin have a go today but his idea of playing with it is to hold it on his tummy while he writhes on his back.  The girls got so excited by the whole business they were doing Bruce Lee impressions, jumping in the air and performing karate kicks at each other.  I was too intrigued to run for the camera.....
Besides, I hadn't cleared away the debris of their overnight endeavours.
We have brought the tortoises in for the winter and they live in a box of hay under the end of the bed, as out bedroom is unheated and provides about the same temperature as a well insulated garden shed.  It only dropped below freezing once last winter and we had insulated the tortoises well.  The hay is of great fascination to all the kittens, especially Merlin who likes to attack stray strands and kill them firmly.  The tortoises themselves are to be wary of - stones that move are not necessarily safe - but the hay rustles beautifully when you jump in it.
Hence I have to deal with bits of hay spread about the bedroom.......
Their scratching post lives in the bedroom too, I made it to go in the bath when we had 6 kitties in the bathroom, to give them a bit more to play with, it's a 3' length of sycamore nailed to a board, with a cottonreel hung from the projecting branch I left on it.
Sycamore in England is the Acer pseudoplatanus, a maple, not the American sycamore which is a plane tree of some description.  It's a nice dense wood that they can't hurt themselves on or chew splinters off, which is why it's good to make wooden spoons with.

Biff reckons he'll get on better with Kitties when [a] Merlin doesn't smell so male and [b] all of them have stopped being so Suddenly.

Jasper and Fenella have both had tummy upsets which made them a little unwilling to associate with kitties for a few days - Jasper retired to my underwear drawer and Fenella to the banisters where I hang the extra duvets and blankets to air before they go out for the winter, perfect for cats to kip on - but both are now back in fine fettle and would like to thank their friends and fans for their concern.

Featuring Fenella

Featuring Fenella

Fenella spent most of her first somethingteen years with her elderly human, who unfortunately died and Fenella inherited a new slave in her former human’s daughter  who was not interested in cats. She didn’t even bother to tell the shelter where she deposited our noble moggy what her name was.  I wonder if she knew….

With a precancerous condition on her ears and a poor coat from a flea allergy our heroine was one of those cats who are not easy to rehome; fortunately for her – though sadly for us, because we had lost one of our furry family – we had space for another needy cat.  We called her ‘Fenella’ being the English form of Fionnghuala meaning ‘she of the white shoulders’ and easier to spell. 

Fenella just loves to keep her white fur pristine which has earned her the title of ‘The Duchess of Dhobi’.  Often just ‘The Duchess’ or ‘Madam’ she acknowledges all her names and titles with a smirk and an inclination of the head and a total refusal to actually come when called.

When she went missing in August we were distraught; we had only had her six months but she was already a part of the family.  Biff and Jasper were seriously spooked but were unable to tell us where she might be.

We walked all round the neighbourhood, put out notes and put up notices, followed every lead; after all how common can a pure white cat be?

Two up our road, two in a parallel road and three in a street easily accessed by a bit of woodland across the main road.

Three weeks later wonderful Kerry and Harriet rang up and said they though they had found her – and not holding out much hope we went round, a parallel street.

And it was her!

The shock of picking her up though, she flew up in my arms so light after having been…..let us be charitable and call it stately in figure. 

She is now being spoiled rotten and is trying to regain her stately figure – and is ready for cuddles all the time! 

The photo below shows her having found a box just too small for her and her paws still stained and grubby from her ordeal. Since then she has taken me for a drag on the lead - she's still far from robust enough to let out alone - and I have found by the circuitous routes of dustbin runs how she got through to the area where she was found.  Either that or it's a pop-hole to Narnia.