The very first post in this blog was of my cat, Humbug. I uploaded the photograph bby accident and the thought ‘well why not’.

I came home on Monday to find her dead. She was 17 years and 3 months old. She had survived being abandoned in a garden shed as a kitten, a very virulent cancer when she was 7 that ‘should’ have killed her within months, diabetes (can you imagine the fun of giving a cat insulin injections twice a day, for several years, and then renal failure for 9 months (the vet gave her 6 months to live); yet finally she died. She was a great cat. As Muse&Mentor put it she really engaged with you. OK it was often complaints about the quality/quantity of food, sardines, water, tickles, strokes, warm laps and soft duvets … but she didn’t just stomp of and sulk, she explained your inadequacies as a servant … she was a cat. She was a great cat. And now she has gone yet the memories remain of her company, her warmth and her conversation.

And she had many adventures, from climbing to the top of a pine tree, complaining about the lack of a ladder to get down (but did it on her own anyway), to being a terror of the wildlife in the garden (as my son put it ‘you knew you were in trouble when she was coming through the cat flap backwards’) and stalking her own tail, which she never really regarded as part of her.

And these photographs (plus unapologetically repeating the original)  are taken with the only dog she would really tolerate and be a friend to, my spaniel Bella, alas also deceased a few years back. And Bella was also called Princess, because she was lovely and acted like one. So Humbug was also known as Duchess … also Little Miss Grumpy Drawers, Buglet and Kitty.

So those who are pet people will understand my sadness; others may think I am a little mad. I care not. It is a happy thing that these little creatures choose to share their lives with us, their companionship, their adventures, their love. Life is sweet.