My Poorly Baby

Mum's birthday on Sunday was beautiful and sunny if a little to hot (30) girls played in the pool and in the afternoon mum and I joined them. Dad stayed in the cooler living room watching cycling on TV. I made a cake and cooked duck for dinner. We all had a good family day and not one argument!
Monday was another sunny day so as always the girls spent most of the day in the pool, I have no idea what I did just mooched about which was nice just doing nothing. But then Monday night Sophie started to be sick then it started both ends! The pill game began, while being sick you can't keep pills down.... if you can't keep pills down how do you stop the....leakage? Perseverance lots and lots of perseverance! I ground up the pills in a pestle and mortar eventually it worked and the rumble in the jungle stopped and we all went to bed! Thing was by now it was almost morning and time to get up as the gardener was due at 9:30 and food shopping between 10:00 and 11:00.  Sophie was pretty out of it all day and

(she is laying on a towel and a bag by her side... just in case)
 Amy wandered the house in a sleepy stupor...as did I. As the day wore on Sophie started to feel a little better but by 7:30 in the evening we had all had enough and went to bed. A few random garden pictures

 This is the area we are working on at the moment

We all slept for 14 hours and are feeling much better today. However the weather has turned and it's now poring with rain, still it's nothing compared to Texas!
I have been putting off sorting out the insurance for Godfrey but felt it needed to be done. So I have been paying started out at about £22 a month and ten years later is £44 a month, no small amount you would agree. But Pet Plan come highly recommended and are a apparently reputable company (or so I thought). I have only ever made ONE claim when God was bitten on the foot and it swelled up big time.  Naturally it was a weekend so we had to take him to the vet hospital and they kept him in all weekend. Cost £700 mostly paid for by Pet Plan. Anyway I know before God died the vet did some of the tests quoted (quote was £400 to £450) Plus, I had death cover and THAT is the thing that has MAJOR ....upset .....should I say? Apparently even though every year the payments go up the things they pay out for goes down. Once a cat (not sure might cover other animals too) reaches ten they no longer cover death through illness?????? BUT do they tell you? NOPE! Well maybe in the smallest of small print but it's not pointed out or made clear. Tonight I will be going through all of my paperwork and I will see if I can find this little detail. I WILL NEVER EVER TAKE OUT PET INSURANCE AGAIN! For the other cats I have a payment plan with my vet. I pay them £60 a month and when I need the vet it is pretty much paid for. I know that if I need something more than I have paid for it will still be done and sorted out afterwards. I know others who set up a savings plan also a good idea, but I will NEVER have pet insurance even if I do get another 'posh pet'! OK, who am I kidding I have already been looking into getting another Coony kitten. I don't like kittens being on their own so will look out for a moggy companion kitten too. But I will have to wait until after our holiday and my friend has her baby. So maybe a Christmas kitten?

I just missed a real good picture with Ashley and Jordan. Ashley was washing herself and had rested her leg on Jordan's back....Jordan's face was a picture but there was no way he was going to move and risk his mothers wrath!

And finally I think I have a small cot addiction (not as bad as my doll sized toilet obsession 

Still talking Godfrey

Thursday we buried my boy in the garden, again like Tilly just two weeks ago he had a full house with ten of us there to say goodbye. I'm worried about his 'wife' Ashley as she has been acting so strange since his death. We are giving her extra love but we are not Godfrey she want's her man! It's heartbreaking watching her. I had God for eleven years and he got along with every cat (apart from the white cat down the road, but then none of my cats get on with that white cat) But while he got along with all cats it was not until Ashley arrived that he new true kittie love. 

 With Ashley and her sons Jordan and Perri

I had this idea that it would be nice to foster a pregnant cat and interesting for the girls (and me) to hopefully witness the miracle of birth. Ashley arrived in February 2014 looking ready to drop any second. If you want to read her story this is the link https://foster-cats.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/hello-and-welcome.html  So once she ended up staying she met up with Godfrey, it was looooove at first sight and she would have followed him to the moon and back. Might have helped that he was the first guy cat that wanted HER and not for sex! She loved him deeply and we all called them Mr and Mrs. 

So the burial was as expected and the tears were pretty free flowing. Afterwards my friends son was trying to comfort Amy and he told her Godfrey was now a cloud in the sky floating away. A while later my mum called us to all look at a cat shaped cloud in the sky. Thing is she had not been around when Oli was talking to Amy and knew nothing of what he had told her? Just another strange coincidence to go with the other things that have happened since God died?
Bellow some more random photo's of my boy and in case you might be wondering yes, I will be getting another Maine Coon cat but not for a while.

Dolls, Cats and Day's Out

Not posted for a few days, just not felt up to it. The death of Godfrey came as such a shock and he has left a massive hole in our lives it has been very hard to get our heads around what happened. But the world keeps turning and life moves on.... 
I had three new doll come a week or so back and I have just unboxed them.. 
Finley Price, I'm loving this doll the short fringe is so pretty but not sure what I will do with the bun once it's un-done? Her outfit is lovely and I did toy with the idea of leaving her 'as is' but she is just such a sweetie I want to re-dress her and play around with her. 

 

 

 

Never Predictable, now this one I will be leaving 'as is' and she will be displayed in my dining room. 

 

 

The third doll was Smoke and Mirrors Lilith 

 

 

I can't see this one going about her business without a phone and as I just received this one she was first in line for it 

 

My pregnant friend is still having a few baby issues and it's looking pretty definite that she will need a Caesarean. I'm her birthing partner as her partner/boyfriend is only around when it suites him! I'm hoping he will stick around for the birth but we will see? 

I did get to play catch up with one of my oldest friends who moved to Cyprus some years ago and that was a wonderful fun filled afternoon. She is hoping to move back to England soon and it will be great to have her close by again. 

I had been spending some time working in my doll room the last few days and my shadow Jordan was waiting for me just outside 

 

Ashley and her boys Jordan and Perri having a few sweets 

 

this picture reminded me of one I took not long ago 

 

I hate change especially this sort! 
I do still have my Ike who I snapped resting under the hammock 

 

Went to Kingston Upon Thames yesterday as it's my mum's birthday tomorrow. This weekend is a bank holiday and Saturday/Sunday and Monday will be a nightmare on the roads so we decided to avoid the traffic as much as we could by going out on Friday. It still took us the best part of two and a half hours to get there with the M25 (known as the car park around London) and an accident that stopped traffic for some time on the A308! Still the weather was nice and we had a lovely French meal looking out over the river 

 

 

I spotted a Tiger shop while wandering around Kingston and had a look around in the hope I could find some mini chairs I had spotted in a post on FB a few weeks ago.... came out with these

I wanted two of each but they only had one pink chair left! 

The scooter is a pen! I also brought some new cat collars (not shown)

Goodbye Godfrey

Yes, I'm talking Godfrey who else? Well, he just was not looking himself so I thought I would need to take him to the vet, this was a couple of weeks ago. THEN Tilly had her fits and breathing stuff ending with her death so my head was elsewhere. Then Ike was ill and needed three teeth out so again I delayed Godfrey. But stroking him on Monday night I noticed a lump and instantly thought it was Cancer! He had more than this though, for some time I had noticed he was walking a little funny but Maine Coon's are known to have wobbly hips and just thought it was this or maybe that he was a bug for letting me comb him and at one time he had a major knotty botty! I found some wonderful long garden gloves so with mum's help we sorted that out, but still a little of in the walking. Now God loves to lay in the garden he has never been much of an athletic cat so him laying around in his favourite spots again went un-noticed as to there being anything wrong. BUT I had noticed he was loosing weight, again I passed this off as the other cats eating his dinner and we started feeding him separately. Anyway on Monday I found a large lump on his side and phoned the vet the following morning. He was booked in for 2 o'clock that afternoon. At the vets the young vet asked question and made notes, all the while watching Godfrey wander the room and settle on the floor next to my feet. I could tell he thought I was right but hoped with every bone in my body that I was wrong. Dad and the girls were with my and so I was trying my best to keep it together. Then it was time for the vet to look him over, the vet took a long time listening to his heart (not a good thing I knew) next he weighed him, God had gone from 8KG a couple of years ago to just over 5KG!!!! With all that fur while I knew he had lost weight I just never realised it was so much! The vet agreed there was a lump and took God to see the head vet. The prognosis was not good, he had two enlarged Kidney's and his heart was not good. They needed to do bloods and a scan plus putting a needle in each Kidney to see what was going on. OK, I agreed when would I need to bring him back? I was told they would do this now!!! It started to sink in this was not going well. The vet said he would leave us for a while so we could have some time with him...this was not going well! We went home and waited for the phone to ring. Just after four the head vet phoned, the x rays were worse than he thought and God's heart was not strong enough to survive an operation or chemo. OK, so I would collect him and have a couple of days to say goodbye if the vet could give him painkillers? But no, this was not to be he was just to poorly. So we all returned to the vets mum, dad, the girls and me, we spent time with him saying our goodbyes and just before 5 o'clock he was gone! Three hours... that was it....just three hours!
He sat on my lap as we drove home and he gave me one last gift... he peed all down my leg!
He was the sweetest, kindest, funniest, most loving, giant fluffy cuddle cat. After loosing Tilly the queen of cuddles I'm just lost! Yes, I still have Ashley, Perri, Jordan who don't 'do' the cuddle thing. I still have the bell's Anibelle and Izzibelle but they are a strange pair who live mostly in my bedroom often under my bed and not seen from one week to the next. Finally I have Ike, he will allow you to pick him up and have a short cuddle but not a lap cat. I have no Mawaaaa in the morning....no fighting me to get to the toilet first and have a head rub.....no, mwaaaa to go out/in/out/in.... No fluffy bum wiggling up the garden path....no giant cat tripping me up as I cook..... no pee on the door mat....no pee on Amy's floor (I think that was down to his kidneys?) Oh, and no need to keep the bathroom door closed so he did not pee (or poop) in the bath! God I'm going to miss that giant smelly cat!
OK, so now on to the strange stuff.....

1. A couple of weeks ago I did all the cats for fleas the others are all still flea free BUT once God was dead and laying in a basket after about an hour we noticed about a dozen flees jumping ship? I had noticed some flea dirt but did not think anything of it as he was done only a couple of weeks ago...anyway I sprayed God and the whole room so no more fleas.
2. So I said before that the vet had taken bloods, and God had bandage on his leg. Once dead the vet removed it and replaced with a cotton wool bud and plaster. I thought nothing of this at the time. When we got home I had put God in a basket and washed the towel (he peed on it) This morning before his burial I moved him onto the clean towel the basket was very, very bloody! I guess the bloods had been taken from a main artery and he had bled into the basket. So the basket went into the wash and he is now in a towel on a tray (will be dumping the tray). Thing was under the basket the blood had leaked onto the floor and have got into the join. I've disinfected the area but you can still see it...now for the strange part! When I had the floor laid there had been a few tiles left over so I had put them on a board to use as flooring in my dioramas. Amy was in the study with me and had some how got one of these tiles stuck to her foot??? How? The flooring is on it's side along with a dozen more boards. They have been there a couple of years and none have ever come loose (anyway even if they had this board was sandwiched between the other boards)  
3. I told mum this story and she just phoned me back, as she was making her bed she had remembered a dream she had last night. In the dream she was making her bed and it was covered in blood? SPOOKY!!!!

2005 3 months old

6 months old

9 months old

1 year old

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012 with Gezabelle

2013 With Gezabelle,Izzibelle and Annibelle

2014 

2015

2016

2017 his last ever photo taken on 13 August 2017 (he died on the 15th)