The Heartbreak Pets- Paws for thought

The Heartbreak Pets
Paws for thought


The e-mail I received a few days ago from Rose about taking Cookie Monster and Silly for spaying prompted me to tell you about our experience with pets.

Back in the late 1980s we had “Biscuit” a black and white Tom cat who was obsessed with the door bell and the fixed telephone. Every time the phone rang he raced me to it. When I took too long chatting, Biscuit would tug at my trousers hurrying me to stop. At night time or early morning he would pull my pyjama trousers down.

One day Christine my wife and Karim my pre-teen son took Biscuit to the Vet for his annual booster injection. As soon as they walked out of the Vet’s Biscuit escaped. I learnt later that the Vet did not shut the cage properly. He was never seen again. That was in 1991. All the search, the leafleting and announcements in the town’s local paper yielded no information. We were heart-broken.

Midnite and Suzie
Within a few months we acquired two kittens from a lady in a neighbouring town. She told us that the kittens a brother and a sister were born in Oxford the quintessential English University Town and the lady’s sister brought them down to Surrey.

We called the black male kitten Midnite and the female white and brown was called Suzie.

Midnite and Suzie thrived and prospered and loved the big garden. They took to following us around the garden like dogs.

Cats’ Guantanamo
In the mid 1990s when we decided to travel to the USA on a two-week vacation, we took them to a cattery to be looked after. When we went to collect them, they looked miserable and tired. Nevertheless they were relieved and happy to see us. Obviously they hated their detention, they lost weight and to them it was worse than Guantanamo. So we took the decision to never put them in a detention centre again when we went away. We arranged for a neighbour to look after them during our absence. When in 2001 we packed a suitcase to fly abroad, Suzie sat on it to stop us leaving.
Christmas was their favourite time. They liked the noise and the aroma emanating from the kitchen. They would ravenously eat the turkey’s giblets before they sleep by the fire-place snoring away right through the Wizard of Oz and the Queen’s Christmas speech which were essential features on TV during the festive season.

Tom and Harold
In the intervening years two characters showed up. First was Harold Bishop and followed a few years later by Tom Clark (so called to distinguish him from another Tom in the same neighbourhood).

Harold Bishop appeared suddenly one summer afternoon, and was in obvious distress due to his collar slipping and forming a very tight belt around his body. We cut him loose and fed him and he refused to leave. H B was a black cat with a fat head and green eyes. The kids named him Harold Bishop after a character in an interminable Australian soap. He was killed by a car a few weeks later.

Tom Clark was a well trained and well behaved “Maine Coon”. Midnite and Suzie took to him and they got on well with him. He turned up in February 2004 and was killed by a car doing a swift U-turn in our drive in October 2004.

Suzie says goodbye
By June 2006 Suzie’s health deteriorated and the Vet said nothing could be done to save her. She was put down and buried in her favourite spot in the garden. Midnite was devastated and for a few months he couldn’t settle down always searching for his Suzie. Eventually he accepted the situation and became friendlier than ever.

Midnite follows Suzie
In the summer of 2008 Midnite was limping. We assumed that he was stung by a wasp and would get better. But he didn’t. Christine took him to the Vet who kept him overnight for observation. The following day, I got a call from the Australian Vet who said “Midnite’s leg was broken and he had cancer around his lungs and there would be no point in long and expensive treatment”. I protested to the Vet saying “but up to the night before he was brought to you he was eating well and was licking the back of my hand and was purring happily”. The Vet insisted there was no hope and we finally gave him the green light to do what was necessary. Later that day Christine collected Midnite’s stiff body and brought him home wrapped in a small blanket. I buried him in separate grave close to his sister, and to Harold @ Tom.

At the present we don’t have pets. You could say we are “Pet-less”. I know they bring pleasure and comfort but when they go, it is heart-breaking and devastating.

Nehad ismail
Writer/Broadcaster London