Lucy Boo

My darling Lucy Boo passed away in the early hours of October the 7th after 18 beautiful years with us.
A recent scientific study revealed the same emotional response was given by women shown a picture of their child or a picture of their pet. I truly believe a pet becomes one of the family and when a pet dies it is like a member of the family dying.

I would like to share Lucy's story in this post.

We got Bob in February 1992 and he was a loving cuddly cat but very nervous. In the summer of 1996 we answered a plea from our local Cats protection to foster a cat until a permanent home could be found. We took in an adult white cat (with no teeth and a bit of an attitude!) for a couple of weeks. This cat was called Lucy, she didn't let poor Bob in the lounge for a few weeks and in the end we decided it wasn't fair on him and a new foster home was found for Lucy the white cat.

In the midst of preparing for our wedding in the Autumn of 1996 we thought if we introduced a kitten to Bob he might not find that so intimidating. We went back to the Cats Protection and fell in love with a little scrap of a thing...as we had got use to the name...she became Lucy. The lady at the cats protection would not take our donation for her and said she was a wedding present.

She grew into her ears!

It was touch and go for the first few days as she was very ill. Poor Bob wondered what we had brought home she was such a skinny, scrappy thing and never really liked being cuddled.

Soon they were friends, we only have one photo of them curled up together but they were never far from each other. Lucy was a little more adventurous and even went missing over night a couple of times but she always came back.

She never ever put on much weight and lost most of her teeth when young but this never held her back.

When we lost Bob in August 2008 she was probably even more doted on and totally ruled the house.

Over the years I took thousands of photos of both Lucy and Bob (what will I take photos of now?). Of course I don't have them all on my computer so most of these are later ones.

She would follow the patch of sun around the house.

She loved the fire, she was a little heat monster. 

One of her favourite places was in the airing cupboard.

She caught a few wild creatures but was never a big hunter...although she could watch a mouse hole in the garden for hours on end!

She loved soft cheese.

Her favourite tipple from the bathroom sink.

Neither of our cats could use a cat flap...we had to hold it open with string!

 A couple soft focus photos!

 She loved a box....and a ladder.

We are finding it terribly hard without her in the house, for such a tiny thing she has left a big hole, I am finding it really difficult coming home to an empty house.

I found it hard to say no to her....if she wanted to sit on your knee...she won!

 Hubby is adamant we are not getting another cat.

We were with her in her final hours, she was not unwell before she died and not in any pain, her little body just gave up and she slipped quietly away. There was a rainbow that evening.