Arthur Brown

Yesterday was a very emotional day as we said goodbye to our very good friend Arthur Brown. Arthur is a 6 year old cat that has been with us from a kitten but after a few trips to the vet to question why he had started to spray everywhere when he has been nuetered and why he had suffered serious hairloss (he was a grand cat with lots of fur and an extremely fluffy tail), he was going bald quite quickly and his tail looked like a rats tail.

My parents have been to visit for the weekend (we went to see Blood Brothers in Liverpool which was immense but that's another story) and when they left they took Arthur with them... Stan and I both had a cry but we all agreed that it would be best for him. The reason behind this move was because in our house we have ten cats. All loved equally and very much part of our family. They all have their own places where they go to be alone but most of the time they spend cleaning each other or snuggling up on my feet, crammed on the one arm-chair that is never used by anything other than a cat (so it is officially there chair), or on our bed. They are all healthy and well fed, they chatter with us and follows us around. If we are in the garden having a barbecue they are dotted around the garden so like to be where we are. Arthur however sprayed constantly because he could no longer find his identity, he felt he had to mark his territory and the hair loss was as a result of his constant grooming. He was grooming himself bald.

I spoke with my Mum last night and he was on her knee snuggled up purring as she stroked him. He slept in Rhiannes bed with her last night and was purring when he went to sleep and when she woke up this morning he was in exactly the same position (still purring). He's had something to eat and is starting to explore (slowly), he has sprayed once and marked his territory and hasn't done it since so all is good for Arthur.

The moral of this story is that sometimes you have to make a sacrifice, change your mindset, adjust things and look for solutions that may not always sit comfortably in order to achieve your desired result. My desired result was to have a happy pussycat so I changed things.