Sadly he was rather poorly over the weekend so we took him back to the vets and it was decided it would be best to put him too sleep!
Yes we are very upset ,but I thought the best way to remember him would be to tell you a few stories about him..................................
In 1992 he adopted us! At the time we had a very large feral cat population in our neighbourhood. He would hang around and meow at all times of the day and night, we where quite horrible to him chucking small stones to frighten him off etc. but he was never put off! One day I had my double doors open at the back, it was quite hectic in the house getting ready to take Kathryn to school, washing machine and dishwasher going, then in he marched, straight past all of us, the machines and into the lounge where he curled up on one of the chairs and slept for 48 hours!!!!!!!!! He had already tried to move in next door, but they had dogs, he was not one bit fazed by the dogs, but they hated him.
It was after this, that we realised he had probably been abandoned, no feral cat would have past the machines!!! He was also long haired and although he had been hanging around for about a week his coat was not bad enough to make us think he had always been outside.
We advertised in all the local shops to see if anyone had lost him and after he had been living with us for 10 days, he was hit by a car, we got him to the vets and the bill was £103, we decided then and there he was ours!
Kathryn remembers him playing chasing your toes through the bedclothes.
My sister says she would always remember the way he used to sit by the biscuit cupboard staring straight at it, willing it to open, until someone gave him some!!!!
He was always very different to all our other cats, he was very intelligent and would take time to work things out, he really did think problems out.
When we first had him I had 3 other cats and I always shut the kitchen door so the cats could get into the kitchen but not the rest of the house. This was not good enough for Chimarnie! We live in a block of 4 terraced cottages, the middle 2 (of which 1 is ours) have a brick built porch. One morning we found him asleep at the bottom of the bed and had no idea how he got there, so we watched and waited.
He jumped onto our neighbours car ( because it was parked closer to the porch than ours) he jumped from there to the roof of the porch. From here our outside window ledge is about 2 ft higher but 4-5ft along so he jumped across then climbed in the window. Now that takes thinking!!!
Marks best memory of him ...............................
I used to breed Guinea pigs, unfortunately that meant Rats (ugh) anyway I had traps set. Mark remembers Chimarnie coming in the cat flap tail first (thats right bottom first!) then hearing this tremendous bang and again bang, as he rushed through to see what was going on Chimarnie had managed to come through the catflap bottom first carrying a big rat trap with an even bigger rat on it, looking very proud!!!!
What do I remember, well lots really, he defended his territory from all feral cats for 12+ years and cost us hundreds of pounds in vet bills, sewing up his wounds. He would sit on command and often give you his paw too! White hairs everywhere! He very rarely sat on your knee, but would always sit as close to you as he could get. Latterly as I left to take Tori to school he would come out the front door with us, I still have a window box my father made which stands about 3ft 6ins and it has a shelf underneath, which Chimarnie liked to sit on and watch the world go by from. He would wait there until I came back and let him back in.
Mum has reminded me, that when she used to come and stay, Chimarni adored her and hers was the only knee he ever sat on. Always left her covered in white hair!!!!!!!!!!
Tori was reminding me this evening of the time when we got Sassy and Tango. The girls where always playing with them with lengths of string that they ran round after. They tried to encourage Chimarnie to join in but he looked at the piece of string as if to say 'imagine expecting me to play with that'!!!
Some other memories that came to light over the dinner table tonight..... when he first moved in he was a terrible thief/opportunist, in those days he was speedy, we could be sat down to our Sunday Roast and he would leap onto the work surface and nick the chicken!!!!!!! You always knew he had it cos he growled just in case.
His other passion in those early days was milk, poor Tori always seemed to bear the brunt.......... she would be quite happily eating her breakfast cereal, I maybe had gone to get something and in a flash he was lapping out of her bowl, she never minded but I did!
I am sure more stories will come to mind and I will add them accordingly.
These are younger than the first group and they are Gloucester Old Spot! I passed the farmer whom I thought they belonged to and had a chat and he said go in and have a closer look. So I did but the battery on the camera ran out!!!! I will have to go back!!!!
