End of an era

So Marley is gone. What a special cat. He was a symbol of our moving to a new country, we met him the first day at our new house. He was a very attractive cat, big and solid with a thick shiny fluffy black and white coat and a kind of lightning bolt on his nose. He had big feet and and a massive fluffy tail. Our porch had a polycarbonate roof and we could look up and see those big feet splayed out padding across the roof, or see his fluffy cat tummy spread out above us if he was lying down. He liked to be up high. Sometimes he would frighten guests at night by climbing the tree, crossing the roof and demanding to be let in the window beside the bed upstairs. He could talk. Actual words. Once he said agua, so of course I gave him water. Another time I had just come in the door and he looked up and said "Mum" quite clearly and distinctly. What an honour for me. He slept on the corner of the bed on a special blanket folded to the right size. Sometimes I would carefully slide my foot under him to feel the reassuring weight of my lovely cat. If he objected he would attack my foot. He didn't get off the blanket to sleep on any other part of the bed, but sometimes he would walk up my body to get me to let him out, and he once terrified me by silently padding up the bed and pushing his face into mine while I was asleep. In later years he couldn't jump onto the bed so we got him a sturdy plastic box to use as a step and he was fine. He was an excellent communicator and could usually get us to do what he wanted.

I told you he loved flowers. He was buried in his favourite shoebox, with a flower tucked in beside him and flowers on his grave. He is resting in peace right where he used to lie in the sun all day, under one of his favourite cat nests.

You will always be in our hearts and memories Marley.