DumptyI have laundered the designer duvet. Folded Madam’s favourite blanket, fluffed up the little pink cushion with the sparkly ‘Practically a Princess’ written on it in glitter then washed the crystal dish which held her favourite kibbles.

Then I sat down and wrote out my CV with tears in my eyes. For I am now an unemployed Maid. I have no charge to care for anymore.

I wasn’t sacked, for the poor, shoddy levels of service Madam constantly commented on in Dumpty’s Diaries, when she was a faded film star after she had starred in a cat food commercial. Nor was I made redundant.

Madam died suddenly of a massive heart attack on Wednesday 22nd February 2017. I had come back from the place called work, wiped her eyes, cuddled and told her I loved her and gave her a kiss as she purred, stretched out on the bed. Then I took her into the bathroom which she called her Executive Spa Area and whilst I had a good soak she ate a full sachet of her favourite chicken cat food.

She then toddled into the lounge over to a crystal bowl with cool clear water for a drink. She had a slurp then slowly rolled back onto her haunches and then onto her side onto the carpet. In 5 seconds it was all over. She had gone before she hit the carpet.

Madam had left me.

My heart’s diamond had gone and I was devastated. I picked her up and in complete desperation rushed her to Saint Ben her personal surgeon, but of course, I knew she had gone and there was no getting her back. She had only seen Saint Ben four days previously and he had checked her out and listened to her heart and declared her to be perfectly fit. So it really was a bolt from the blue.

Gabion Tzchugge saying goodbye to his friend, Dumpty RooI placed her on her Practically a Princess cushion inside a champagne box, as storm Doris was raging outside.  I just sat and sobbed as I stroked her. Gabion joined us and curiously he sniffed her then very gently put his paw out and delicately touched her. He looked up at me and I think he knew that she had died. We then covered her over in a very fitting royal purple blanket.

The next evening, the storm had abated but it was still wild. The rain had turned the garden to mud.

Little Dumpty Roo, a very royal Himalayan Lynx, was buried with full Tom Cat Towers honours in the vegetable patch where the first rays of morning sun and the last spark of evening sun fall. A bouquet of fragrant flowers lie on the slab which was placed upon her.

Then I went and had a good bath and cried my eyes out! The house is empty, my bed is lonely without my pillow pirate and I can’t get used to not cuddling, kissing, sniffing and just holding her while we talked to each other. My heart is utterly broken.

I now realise that being her Maid really was a full-time job and I was privileged when, in July 2007, she chose me for the position and I have loved her for every single second we were together.


ED: I asked Carol about Dumpty’s earlier life as she was about 8 when she came to live at Tom Cat Towers.  It makes for horrific reading:

“Dumpty had a bad time!!

She and her brother were very loved (I would have loved to have seen a pic of her brother). Then the brother died, then Dumpty's owner died. A colleague took her in but his boyfriend hated her. She cowered behind a bath panel for 18 months till the boyfriend persuaded the other to have her put down.

The beautiful Dumpty RooWhen I got to see her, she was just skin, bones and petrified. It was obvious that most every bone in her body has been broken at some stage, she must have been kicked round like a rag doll. They didn't know she was a Himalayan Lynx, she was just a nuisance cat that they had been lumbered with and she had to go!

That's why I loved her so much; it took so long to make her feel safe and loved, and for her to trust me. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  Forget works of art, Dumpty was exquisite and such a gentle soul I gave her the best of everything. I know in my heart that I have done my best for her so I have no regrets there. I am heartbroken!”

Carol Turner


 

One Cat is Company

"One cat is company.
Two cats are a conspiracy. 
Three cats is an attempted takeover.
Four or more cats is a complete coup!"

Shona Steele (Australia)

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