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

R.I.P. Slash

Golden axolotl ("Slash")
Ambystoma mexicanum (Shaw, 1789)
Ambystomidae; Caudata; Amphibia; Chordata
Aquarium at home
May 2005

Yesterday I found my one and only axolotl, Slash, dead in its tank. I'm still a bit grief-stricken; apart from my cats (Scarlett, Sapphire and Dolly), Slash has been my longest lasting pet, and had been a constant joy.

I first acquired Slash in January 2005 and kept him in a tank in my bedroom. It had always been a dream of mine to own axolotls, and had planned to get a pair and call them Axl and Slash after two of the members of Guns 'n' Roses. Slash loved to watch me play guitar, and had an ear for good music. He would approach people, in his own sluggish manner, when they went to the tank to view him. At the end of that year, I acquired another two axolotls, who I named George and Mildred (after the 70s comedy spin-off), both fully grown adults. I bought a brand new tank for them and they lived together peacefully, for a while.

I thought Slash might like a playmate, but knew he/she (still not sure!) might be too small for George and Mildred, as they were twice his size (I'll stick with Slash being male, 'cause I'm just used to it). I decided to get an albino African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). As soon as Slash noticed the newcomer, he took a bite, and then another. That moment is on film. Needless to say I quickly removed Slash and transported him to the other tank, leaving the frog (then unnamed, but soon to be Elaine) on her own.

Elaine got a tankmate in the form of Kitchener (both named after Young Knives songs). Slash got on well with George and Mildred, as he had grown somewhat in that time. Slash got on especially well with Mildred, both of them resting in the same pot. Then things began to change. In mid-2007 I acquired a mussel and, hoping it would help keep the tank clean, introduced it to the axolotls' tank. I don't think Mr. Mussel had anything to do with it now, but it sure was co-incidental; Mildred started going crazy and was biting both Slash and George. Slash escaped with relatively few marks, but George had three legs missing and most of the toes on the one remaining leg were bitten off too. His tail had been truncated and gills mutilated. To top it off, Mr. Mussel was eaten! Mildred was shipped off to a pet shop and I kept a close eye on George.

It was in early 2008 that George passed away, probably from a combination of starvation and asphyxiation. He wasn't eating and I hadn't seen him eat for months. Slash was left on his own for a long while. This was until I moved him to his original tank and got him a pair of new playmates, a pair of goldfish, named Carassius and Auratus, after the scientific name for the goldfish. Auratus must've been ill when I purchased it and it died after only a few days. Carassius and Slash got on rather well, until I noticed Carassius sometimes taking little bites out of Slash's gills and tail. Examining his body a bit post-mortem, I noticed a few sores, probably also made by the goldfish.

I'm now left with a Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus) called Polly, a bristlemouth catfish (Ancistrus sp.) called Taka and a leopard pleco catfish (Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps) called Gibbons, as well as Carassius, the baby newt and the cats. I have more dead pets than living ones in my collection now, as I have kept the bodies of several newt tadpoles (smooth, palmate and Alpine), both Xenopus toads, a mottled catfish (Chrysichthys ornatus), a black ghost knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons), George and now Slash. I've kept them in case I ever want to carry out post-mortems or use tissue samples for molecular analyses. In some people's eyes, keeping dead pets in a glass jar in a glass cabinet might make me morbid, or even creepy, but it's the scientist in me.

Damn, the Mexican cactus pot in Carassius' tank looks completely out of place now. I'll have to get something else Mexican to live with it.

R.I.P. Cornf

I came home from work today and found my black ghost knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons), called Cornf, dead and sticking out of Pyrite's, my ornate bagrid catfish (Chrysichthys ornatus), mouth. I don't know how it died, only that I think it was already dead before Pyrite attempted to swallow it. I managed to salvage the body and have preserved it along with George the axolotl, Kitchener the xenopus toad, and the baby newts I hatched, in a jar of alcohol. R.I.P. Cornf.