Cats we've lost; cats we've found

A friend of mine lost one of her cats this week. She had spent twenty Christmases with her cat, George. That's a lot of Christmases. She had adopted George and his twin sister from a farm and took them home with her, wondering how on earth she was going to take care of them both. Well it turns out she did alright, since they've been with her for twenty years.

It's ironic for me, because I lost a cat at this time last year. Smudge had been with me for seven or eight years. I think Smudge wasn't too happy that I was spending so much time at my girlfriend's house and wasn't around as much. I brought him to stay with me at my girlfriend's house over Christmas last year, and that's when we noticed that he was losing weight and not eating much. His condition deteriorated rapidly after New Year, and I had to put him to sleep.

Not long after losing Smudge, my girlfriend and I adopted another cat together. I moved in with my girlfriend and we have been able to take better care of Chandler together than I was able to take care of Smudge on my own.

Chandler likes to play on the stairs. He would sometimes roll around and fall down the stairs! The sight would remind me of how Smudge flopped around in his last few hours when he was too weak to stand up any more. Although the sight of Chandler playfully losing his balance and tumbling down the stairs is amusing, I feel fearful for him and wonder if he is actually having a seizure.

Chandler is a good cat - it took a little training but he learned not to climb onto the kitchen counter. When we are late with his feeding, he waits patiently by his bowl. He no longer roams around the kitchen looking for scraps of food - he knows he will get a regular feeding twice a day.