Tribute to Friar

It's taken me a couple of days to get to writing this. I started a couple of times and burst into tears, which inevitably went all over the laptop, so I had to stop!

For those of you that knew Friar know that he was an awesome Cat. I shall tell you his story.....

In 1995 in a house in Earlswood where I used to live, a whole bunch of kittens were born, their Mum was my Cat's sister, Purdie. My Cat funnily enough was called 'Cat' and lived with me in Meadvale.
Shortly after they were born they sadly contracted Cat Flu, Sue and I rushed them to the vets in 2 different cars. My bunch of kittens were on my lap and at the time I had a massive hole in the footwell of my little brown mini. If one of them had fallen off my lap they would have gone into the road and been roadkill! Dangerous times!
We got glucose for them, antibiotics and sat up all night taking them in turns on hot water bottles feeding them the glucose mixture.

They all made the night and grew up to be healthy kitties. I took one from Sue, a little Silvery coloured kitten who I called Gomez. He was so pretty and had the most amazing personality. You couldn't fail to fall in love with the little chap.
Eventually Sue moved house and had to get rid of some of her pets. I took on Purdie who was re-homed at Rosemar and kept Friar.
he was called Friar, because as a small kitten he had a little black Monk spot on his head. It soon spread over his ears as he got older but still looked cute as ever.

Friar, Gomez and Cat lived with Blue and General and our other pets (I was with Shane at the time and we had a small Zoo in our house) and we all lived happily ever after for a bit!
And then I moved out, with the cats and dogs. More cats were added, Hubert and Logan came to join in the fun and we moved into a caravan in the grounds of a boarding and rescue kennels and cattery in Leigh.
Gomez was run over, not long after moving there. It was awful. He had gone missing for a day or so and then our neighbours found him by their house. He joined the other animals in the little woody pet cemetary we had created there. Not that long after Hubert sadly joined him after being hit on the road. Sad times.

Then, other sad times happened in my life, my Grandad died before Christmas in 2000, Friar was there at the end of my bed every night, eventually crawling up into a foetal position with me and walking me every morning with his noisy siamese vocals. He got me through those tough nights and even more to come, because January 2001, my Dad sadly passed away too.
Friar, every night without fail would be there, right on the end of the bed, giving me comfort and a very much needed friend. (I' am crying typing this! Soppy bugger)

Friar always seemed to know when to be there, when I needed his comforting purrs and little noises.

We moved to Devon in 2004, 2 days of moving stuff and animals! Friar, Logan and Cat settled in well and we eventually moved to the farm, and then to Totnes.
At the farm, Friar developed a kidney infection, resulting in him backing up his whole system and shutting down his kidneys.
I took him to the vets, just in the nick of time and they kept him there for a week and he recovered fully from it. Amazing really! £350 later he came home to me.

Shortly after moving to Totnes Cat died of Kidney failure, rather too young. R.I.P. Cat, you funny bugger.

I have to tell you quickly about this little chap, the ginger thing above!
This was Logan.
Logan had already had several rescue homes before me and was very old when he came to me. I was told he only had a few years left. Logan was half Persian and had no ears!
He eventually lived to 32, the last year of his life he had moved out of the house and into my neighbours garden. I think you could say he had cat dimentia, but he seemed happy enough. R.I.P. Logie.

So then there was 1! Friar.
He was a very intelligent cat, I should have trusted him a lot more on reflection, but when I started to go out with Matthew, he hated him! When Matthew was in the house, Friar would go out.
Matthew wasn't a cat person, he hated cats, Friar knew this.
The decision was made though, him or Friar, the cat wins!
The night I finally got rid of Matthew, Friar trotted up the stairs, let out a few cute little mews and jumped on the end of the bed, as if to say, 'You're my wife now!' haha but he really was more comfortable without Matthew there! As was I!

Friar became more and more ill, he was getting old, but he was being sick an awful lot and I knew I had to make a decision.

Friar eventually was put to sleep on Monday 19th November 2012, keeping his dignity and purring right through to the end.
Rest in Peace now my beautiful little boy.

Friar, Cat and Logan at the farm.