On Valentine's Day I went off to work as usual. My friend Jane had been staying with us for a couple of nights; she left just after me. I had loads of work to do and got loads done, but I had been awake in the night and was reslly tired when I came home. Lee and I had decided to not go out for Valentine's Day but decided to order curry. I really wanted Thai food but no one in Barnsley would deliver that, so we ordered curry instead. We gave each other a record each that we had bought in Leeds just the week before - I'm very excited to have Billie Holiday on vinyl!
However, just before Lee was going to go out to collect the curry, my mum rang in floods of tears and asked if we could take her and my stepdad to have their cat Ruben put to sleep. They had been out for lunch and both had a drink so couldn't drive. So we quickly got dressed (we had been in pyjamas) and set off for my mum's, picking up our curry on the way.
Ruben and Millie, my mum's cats, were actually born on the day my dad died in 2008 and came to live with her twelve weeks later. Millie is black with a tiny white smudge, like my Jasmine. Ruben was mostly white with black markings - really cute markings. While my mum was by herself they were constant companions for her and were absolutely spoilt rotten. They would sit on the table with her while she ate tea, a habit that they never grew out of! Ruben was one of the most friendly and amenable cats you could ever wish to meet. They have both been really healthy cats their entire lives. A few months ago Ruben started losing weight and wasn't eating properly. He had been put on different food but it didn't make much of a difference. In late January he got all jaundiced - the skin on the tips of his ears had gone all yellow.
My mum knew she would probably have to make a difficult decision quite soon, and just before Valentine's Day Ruben was having trouble walking so she said to me it would probably be soon. Then on the Tuesday he couldn't walk at all, so my mum called it. We all went into the vets. The vet was lovely and the whole thing was peaceful. Ruben was very brave, bless him. He will be so missed! My mum brought him home to bury him near his favourite bush. Please give your pet an extra hug from us - I made sure Poppy and Jasmine were covered in kisses and hugs
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