Sapphire, 1996-2012

Sapphire
Digital painting created using ArtRage 3.0
January 2012

At ten past six in the evening on Wednesday 25th January, my darling Sapphire was euthanized at the age of 15 years and 8 months. In his last few months we’d noticed him becoming slower in his movements and that he’d been losing weight. In the last week, he seemed to have lost all feeling in his right hind leg. The vet, after detecting a lump in his abdomen which was causing him pain, decided his prognosis was poor due to his age and the likelihood that the lump was cancerous and most probably inoperable. He will always be remembered for his extreme affection, especially in his later years, and his funny ways. Here follows a biography I wrote about Sapphire back in 2008 on this blog:



“Sapphire is a big neutered male 12 year old shorthair cat we have had since he was 2 months old. Scarlett and Saff (as he is known for short, or Saffy) have never liked each other, and pretty much can't stand being in the same room together, except if it's a big room. He is the greediest of the three cats and eats more than his fair share.

He hasn't had as many misadventures in his life as Scarlett, for example, he's never been pregnant, but has had poor health over the last few years to with the bladder, and is slightly overweight so he is on a diet (less food less often). Once his collar got stuck in his mouth, and we thought he broke his jaw. The name comes from the fact that his eyes were once blue but turned greeny.

Saff's funny habits include preference for paper above plush carpet to sleep on, peeing in the bath, sleeping near the toilet, dribbling while he "kneads", sleeping with his head in people's slippers, sounds like ET when he's unhappy. His favourite human food is carrots, and likes playing ice hockey with carrot tops in the kitchen, and also likes food meant for other animals, such as algae-based catfish food.”

Since I wrote that, I also wrote this, which appeared in the “blook” I self-published a couple of years back:

“Sapphire is now a world-famous racecar driver, and has brought out a range of fragrances for men and women called Essence. He’s also become very affectionate of late, and will sit on anybody’s lap.”

Here are a few photographs from throughout Sapphire's life:



Sapphire sheltering from the rain under the barbecue
2002



Sapphire lying on my newly-fitted bedroom carpet
c. 2000



Sapphire as a kitten
1996



Sapphire letting us know he wants to come in!
c. 2000



Sapphire having a roll around in the garden
c.2003



Sapphire lying in a basket
c. 2003



Sapphire as a kitten
1996



Sapphire waiting for dinner
2000



Sapphire resting on one of his favourite spots
2005



Sapphire on my bed
2005



Sapphire and Dolly on my bed
2005



Sapphire under the delusion he can fit inside a shoe box
2007



Sapphire up close and personal
2007



Sapphire resting on a book
2009



Sapphire sitting on my printer
2010

Sapphire, 1996-2012

Pet Biography #3: Dolly

Dolly, born 31st March 1997, is Scarlett's daughter. She's a sprightly, agile, playful feline that does not look her age. She just looks like a big kitten, and often acts like it too. She is the most social and people-loving of the three cats, and often goes to her mum for an allogrooming session, and can tolerate Sapphire to the point of sleeping on the same bed (my bed is quite small). She is always the first to greet strangers, to the point of ignoring me! I have a very close bond with Dolly, and we know each other quite well. In that way, I mean that I know where she'll be most of the time and how to react to her odd moods, and she knows that if she wants stroking, all she has to do is roll onto her back and show off her lily-white belly, curl her tail into an alluring question mark, and close on eye, purring like a jackhammer. Then I'll immediately stop what I'm doing and give her some attention.

Dolly's oddest quirk is that she hates anybody touching her tail. She tolerates it for a short while, then starts to grumble and then hiss, but never bites. She goes off in a huff, exhales in a uniquely Dollyish way, then 30 seconds to a minute later, she's back. Then you touch the tail again, then she's off. I think the cause of this "don't touch my tail" nonsense is that she was bitten by something as a kitten and had to have a few visits to the vet for infection. Luckily, she still has her tail, but it does seem to have a mind of its own. Scarlett, on the other hand, would let you curl her tail around your finger and not bat an eyelid, back when she had one of course.

Dolly likes popcorn, crisps, pretty much any other savoury snack, anything that moves, my bed and hiding underneath the card table with a green tablecloth in the living room. She mainly uses that area as a hiding place for when it's time to go outside and she doesn't want to be found, but has also found another use for it. Sapphire often brutishly chases the other two around the house, the only time he gets any exercise, the fat slob... and Dolly got her own back once by lashing out at Saff when he walked past the table.

Pet Biography #2: Sapphire

Sapphire is a big neutered male 12 year old shorthair cat we have had since he was 2 months old. Scarlett and Saff (as he is known for short, or Saffy) have never liked each other, and pretty much can't stand being in the same room together, except if it's a big room. He is the greediest of the three cats and eats more than his fair share.

He hasn't had as many misadventures in his life as Scarlett, for example, he's never been pregnant, but has had poor health over the last few years to with the bladder, and is slightly overweight so he is on a diet (less food less often). Once his collar got stuck in his mouth, and we thought he broke his jaw. The name comes from the fact that his eyes were once blue but turned greeny.

Saff's funny habits include preference for paper above plush carpet to sleep on, peeing in the bath, sleeping near the toilet, dribbling while he "kneads", sleeping with his head in people's slippers, sounds like ET when he's unhappy. His favourite human food is carrots, and likes playing ice hockey with carrot tops in the kitchen, and also likes food meant for other animals, such as algae-based catfish food. 

Next up, Dolly!

Pet Biography #1: Scarlett

This is the first of a series of posts on my blog about my pets, including those past and present. They go in chronological order from the earliest pet to the latest, but starting from 1996, as that is as far as I can remember, and have photos from!

Scarlett, born March 1996, has been with the family since she was two months old. She is now at the ripe old age of 12. I have no pictures of her when she was young, because none of us could work a camera properly and they are all blurry black blobs on a piece of paper that could be a bin bag or a kitten.

Scarlett was bought from a pet shop in Crews Hill, as many of my pets also did. This particular pet shop was an odd one, more like a zoo with free entry. If I remember correctly, they had meerkats, caimans (!), red squirrels, bullfinches and loads and loads of snakes. A few weeks before buying Scarlett, I remember seeing a pregnant Rex which was very friendly. I now think this cat was Scarlett's mother, and she has actually inherited some of that breed's characteristics, I think (very short crimped fur which falls out easily, Scarlett goes partially bald for a while each year, then the fur grows back).

All I can recall about Scarlett's first year was that she didn't like me very much, until she became pregnant and would come to me for comfort. She was 12 months old when she gave birth to five kittens on 31st March 1997. The father was a stray we nicknamed "Romeo" or another tabby stray, but not Sapphire as he was neutered before being sexually mature. Scarlett was a very good mother to her babies, each different looking to the other. One female was exactly like herself, with the white throat spot, two males were tabby and black and white, and the two other females were tabby and white, and the most unusual shade of creamy brown and white with a black-tipped tail, reminiscent of a stoat in its winter coat. This, the first born, we kept, and named Dolly after Ms. Parton (not my choice of name). Dolly matured into a pale brown spotted and white tabby, and kept the black banded tail. More about her later.

Scarlett's next episode happened after we couldn't find her for more than a day. Her daughter helped us to find her, sheltering in the garden shed, and she was injured; her tail was limp. The tail was amputated, and her bobtail look is now her most distinctive feature. She has gotten on well without a tail, and is still more agile than either of the other two cats.

Scarlett loves hiding in a nook between a fitted fridge and the plate cupboard, it can be impossible to get her out of there; my trick is to open a packet of chicken slices near the fridge. She hates loud noises, especially tin foil and the noise you make when you cough up phlegm (there's no nice way to describe it, I've tried). Her current favourite places to nap are on a pink cushion on one of the sofas near the kitchen, as well as on a padded footstool in the conservatory. She has also taken to sunbathing on the freezer in the conservatory when the sun is out. Her favourite human food other than meat is cheddar cheese, and she adores whipped cream from a can.

The next instalment will be about Sapphire...