Sunday 11th August

The day after the Alternative Makers Fair was a perfectly normal day, until it wasn't. I've been putting off writing this post because I know it will be painful, but I need to just get it done so I can write the later things too. 

Tukru's bus home was at just before eleven so we all set out early to Meadowhall. I had arranged to meet a friend for lunch but they had to cancel, so Lee and I just went to Meadowhall for a look around and some lunch. It was close to Lee's birthday so we got a couple of presents for him, and we had lunch in Las Iguanas which was Lee's choice but I like it anyway so I didn't mind. I had a peach beach iced tea which was delicious, and a halloumi burger with sweet potato fries. 

We picked up a few things and headed home about 2.30pm. I was wearing one of my flamingo skirts and a pink top that I really like at the moment. Our cat Jasmine went outside when we got home, under supervision for few minutes, and then she came back in. She had some food and sat with Lee. I was upstairs watching TV and I went downstairs at about 5.30 to have some tea and to watch TV with Lee. However, Jasmine was unresponsive on the kitchen floor. We rushed her to an emergency vet but it was too late. She had died. The vet thought it was probably either a heart attack or a clot on her lungs or something. We could have paid for a post mortem but decided not to. 

We got back to our house just after 7pm, obviously really upset and shocked. Jasmine was one of the sweetest, most affectionate cats ever. We had had her four years since she was a kitten - so she was only young still - and we loved her so very much. We're both okay, but very shocked and sad. My mum and stepdad had come over to ours and were sympathetic to us. I miss her so much already! She seemed absolutely fine when we got home, so we hope it was just very sudden and painless for her. 

We will definitely get another black cat in the future because they are just perfect. We're really glad that we decided to keep Kiki when she got landed on us just four weeks before Jazzy died, because we still have two kittos to play with. We got Jasmine's ashes back so they're on the mantelpiece next to Ivy's alongside her paw print and some of her fur. She was a gorgeous little thing and she will be so missed. 

Peach beach cocktail - I actually had two because they were on offer

Halloumi burger with chilli jam and other stuff - it's yummy

Flamingo skirt and pink top

And here's Jasmine in July sometime, when she was lying in bed with me being cuddled, which she liked to do

RIP Ruben

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 

Billie Holiday and Public Enemy

A picture of Ruben taken about four years ago I think, wasn't he the most handsome boy?

The Week Before Christmas with a Few Photos

As we hadn't stayed in Durham all weekend, we had a quiet Sunday the day after. The kittens terrorised the Christmas tree, I did some cross stitching, and we had vegan hotdogs and waffle fries for tea. It was a nice, relaxing day! 

On Mondays I usually go to craft club but we had had the last one the week before, with a fuddle to celebrate. So I just had a quiet day in I think. On Tuesdays I go to work, and when I got there I got two gifts from them for Christmas - an Asda gift card and a bottle of rose wine. Everyone got the same, it was really nice!

On Wednesday I definitely went somewhere, as I was wearing the outfit below which is a pleated burgundy skirt from New Look and a Simply Be t-shirt that says "Express your elf" on it which I think is very cute. I can't remember where I went now, though. I don't think I met up with anyone because there's no photos... hmm. Ah, I remember! I went to meet Laura for brunch at Yummy Yorkshire and to swap presents, and then I drove to Sheffield to swap presents with Sarah! I also made some mince pies a bit later on, and Jasmine deigned to sit on me for a while. Neither cat is really a lap cat, but Jasmine has sat on me a few times recently which is obviously lovely! I also had some of the Salted Caramel Baileys in the evening - have you tried it? It's delicious! I saw someone on Instagram with it and immediately ordered some! 

On Thursday my mother and I went to see the new West Side Story at the cinema in Wakefield. It started at 12.30 ish so we both took sandwiches and bought some nachos to share. I love the original film and thought the remake was brilliant too. It was gritty and real, but with the same brilliant music. My mum liked it too. 

Lee finished work on the Wednesday; his company gave everyone an extra day off which was nice! So on the Thursday I left him to do what he liked, I think he was mostly playing a Switch game! It was a nice relaxing week which I always appreciate before Christmas as it's always so busy!

Gifts from work - I'll probably buy fancy gin with the gift card or something

New Look pleated skirt and Simply Be Christmas top 

Vegan meatballs and tagliatte in a peppercorn sauce - a simple meal but one we really like

Cute little mince pies I made. I just bought pre rolled pastry, and the mincemeat was made by my friend Bee and had a LOT of rum in it!

Cutie little Jasmine sitting on my knee. I love black cats so much!

Salted Caramel Baileys - I bought a second bottle too

And finally this was an advert in the cinema just before West Side Story started! 

What I Wore August 9th

On August the 9th our friends Bettie and Jen came over to see the kittens. They got far more visitors than we do - everyone wanted to see them! We arranged for Bettie and Jen to come over for lunch. They arrived into Barnsley and we went to pick them up, then came back and Lee cooked a big brunch for us all. It was delicious - we tried some new-to-us veggie bacon which was really smoky and chewy. I thought it would be nice in buttered bread with lashings of ketchup.

And of course kittens! Jasmine is happy to be handled and likes to be cuddled - she's ridiculous. She also chases things with a lot of energy. Poppy is less happy to be cuddled, but she will get there I'm sure. She likes to play, though. Bettie and Jen were happy to meet them, it was really nice.

We offered to take them home to Sheffield, so we did that and then on the way home we called into Sunshine Deli, which is the vegan deli near the Hillsborough ground. I went back in February (you know, in the before times) with my friend Philippa, when I tried the banana blossom fish and found the whole texture a bit weird. But I wanted to go back and try something else. I went for a classic kebab which comes with salad and chips inside it, as well as the fake meat. It was SO good. Lee went for a fake chicken burger and fries and onion rings. He said it was really nice. I'm glad we took the opportunity as we were passing. 

I was wearing this dress from Simply Be. I've had it ages, but don't wear it often. The lace is a bit itchy. But it was nice for the afternoon. I've also been wearing this witchy necklace loads. I found it recently again and have worn it for weeks. I think it was from Punky Pins or something like that. 

Old Simply Be dress in that kind of scuba material

Fake kebab meat, salad, sauce, and chips, all wrapped in bread. It was huge!

And the witchy necklace I've been wearing recently.

Again I apologise for any formatting errors in this post, it's Blogger not me!

Say Hello to Poppy and Jasmine!

I would like to introduce you to my new kittens! As you know, we lost our cat Ivy at the beginning of June, and the house just didn't feel the same without her. We started looking around at rescue centres for new cats almost immediately. We had always said we wanted two whenever something happened to Ivy, and we kind of wanted kittens too. Some others came up but we were prepared to be patient. Then towards the end of July these two came up on RSPCA in Lincoln. We were on the very edge of their area but we filled in the application form and Amy quickly got back to us as we were a match. She was really good and really helpful, so we arranged to go meet the kittens in the cattery they were living in in Sleaford. We went one Sunday morning and sat with the kittens for about half an hour. 

They were found at just two weeks old in a nest with their siblings, but their Mum couldn't be found. So all five kittens were handreared from then, meaning they're very used to people already. Their brothers had just gone and their sister was about to go. I love black and white cats, like Ivy was, so I was already in love. We said we would please have them.

We then had to have a virtual home check on the following Friday. I was extremely anxious about this and we did lots of tidying up in the week before to make the house look good. I barely slept on the morning of the check, but I needn't have worried as it was all fine and Amy was so nice and helpful. We were told they were ours and we were both thrilled, but decided to not tell anyone except my mum for the time being. We went off to The Range to buy supplies. We had to wait for a week to pick them up as they needed to have their second injections, but then on the 1st of August we could go and pick them up!

On the way back in the car I sat in the back with them and talked to them, stroking them through the bars of the carrier. We decided to keep them in our attic room to begin with, which we've just decorated. We let them out and let them explore and played with them. We had ribbons and a tunnel that they immediately loved. We spent a few hours playing and letting them explore.

My mum and stepdad were about to go on holiday and were desperate to meet them, so they came for an hour to meet them. They were in LOVE like we were! They took some really nice photos on their camera.

So! Let me introduce to you Poppy (black and white) and Jasmine (black, with only a couple of white smudges)! We talked about a lot of names but Lee said Poppy and I liked it, and I really loved the idea of calling a black cat Jasmine. Ivy was black and white, although Poppy is much blacker than she was, and I LOVE black cats. They are little voids!

I'm writing this on the evening that they've come home and they seem fine so far. They're absolutely gorgeous and I'm already in love!

This is Poppy

And this is Jasmine

Poppy's face slays me

And Jasmine did not want to be picked up!

RIP Ivy

We lost our cat Ivy this morning. As I write, it's the 5th of June. We rushed her to the vet at 7am this morning as I woke up at 6.35 and found her really floppy and unresponsive. She was still breathing and the vet did everything she could to save her, but unfortunately she didn't make it. We will have her cremated and have a little casket to put her ashes in to keep.

She had been a little bit not herself for some time. When lockdown started she seemed at first to like the fact that we were around all the time, but then she seemed to get fed up and spent a lot of time in the bedroom asleep where neither Lee nor I were around to bother her. She had still be playing, eating, drinking, asking to go outside, and demanding cuddles just  the same as ever, but we do wonder now if she was beginning to get poorly. On Wednesday she was definitely unwell - she threw up and had a bad stomach - but we had changed her food and thought she just had a bug. She did still eat. On Thursday she still wasn't well, so we said we would take her to the vet on Friday to make sure she was okay. She seemed very lethargic, although we have thought that was due to the heat, which always bothered her quite a bit. We cuddled her lots on Thursday night before bed, which I'm really glad about now. She had been sleeping in the corner of the bedroom on top of a bag.

I woke up at 6.35 and could hear her breathing was very funny. She was very unresponsive and breathing very shallowly. We phoned our vets, whose out of hours service didn't work, so that's really helpful. We phoned another, and met them there at about 7.05. They gave her two shots of adrenaline and some oxygen, but couldn't do anything for her.

They think she had a heart attack and had gone into shock. This may have been what woke me up at 6.35. They said her heart may have been failing for a while, or she may have had a tumour, or something on her lungs. We just don't know. I am confident that up until two days ago she did have a good quality of life. She asked me to let her outside on Tuesday, for goodness sake. I don't think there was anything else we could have done. I'm so glad I did wake up so that we could try to save her, even if it was ultimately unsuccessful.

The vet also thinks she was older than the fourteen years we thought she was. When we adopted her, she had lived with her sister Holly and we were told they were born at Christmas (hence the names) but we're unsure what year that was. Holly was a bigger cat and apparently bullied her, and so the two of them were to be split up. Ivy came and talked to me straight away, and I also loved the white markings on her bum that made her look like she was wearing tights. She came to live here in January 2007, so she had been here over thirteen years. Lee didn't like cats but Ivy didn't give him a choice - she just put herself into our lives and made him love her. She would follow him round the house and loved lying on him.

She had problems with her teeth and had most of them removed in January 2011. Looking at her remaining ones today, the vet thought she was older than fourteen, and this may have contributed to the heart failure. I really don't think there was anything we could have done, but it's easy to beat yourself up wondering what if.

When we got our garden mended in 2016, with turf finally put down, Ivy was allowed outside for the first time. She would ask to be let out, although if the weather was bad she would soon come back in again. She loved to lie on the path in the sun. She could have possibly jumped over the fence at either side of the garden, but she never bothered to try. She was very nosy and loved to see what the neighbours were up to, and they thought it was funny how she would just sit in the garden and please herself. I wrote about that here. We have spent a lot of happy hours lying outside in the sunshine with Ivy, and right up until Tuesday she still wanted to be outside.

I think I will have some photos of her printed off and put into an album or on the wall. She was extremely photogenic, although I appreciate that I am biased. She was very, very soft. And little! She had very little legs and was always a bit chubby. We gave her unlimited cuddles, all the cold water she wanted, lots of sunny windowsills to lie on, treats, and a lot of love.

RIP Ivy, possibly Dec 2005 - June 2020. You were a fantastic, loving, beautiful cat, and I was privileged to have you live in my house and give me such attention. You will be so, so missed.

This was a couple of weeks ago, and she was too hot. She often did this when she was too hot

This was a few weeks ago, she is sitting on Lee's pillow here. SHE was comfortable, but I'm not sure he was!

She liked sitting in little boxes, like many cats, and sat in the jigsaw box a lot

Cuddling me the other day

Her little crossed paws just absolutely slayed me! She had in recent weeks been sleeping on my pillows a lot (which makes me now wonder if she was unwell and wanted to be near to me) and this was one morning before we got up

Oh and look, this is her "no pictures, please" pose. So cute

And this was just last week when we were lying on the grass in the sunshine. Too adorable.

My heart feels broken right now. I loved her so, so much. Thanks, cat, for being the best

Outside cat!

Ivy came to live with us almost ten years ago when she was around 18 months old. We live on quite a busy street so she has been an indoor cat. We weren't even sure if she'd ever been outside and she has mostly not been bothered with open doors and stuff. She got out into the back yard that we share with neighbours once and was thoroughly scared, and she doesn't like rain so she never tried to get out. Our front garden is raised up from the road and the wall at the front of it was broken when we moved in twelve years ago and the garden was in a mess.

We finally got the wall mended in 2014, and then my stepdad put up the fence and gate for us, and then a few weeks ago we had some turf put down. Lee has been using the front door for a while as his car is parked on the road, and Ivy at first was quite suspicious of that - she spends a lot of her time on the living room windowsill which is very wide for lounging on and very warm for sunbathing. But she got used to it, so last week we decided to take her out into the garden.

The neighbours have freedom of access across our garden due to the odd way the houses are set out, so there's a gate at each side of the garden, and low fences at either side and on the front. Ivy has a lead and we took her outside on it and sat on the grass with her. To begin with she was a bit skittish (she is quite a neurotic cat to be honest), especially at the loud noises like busses going past, but she was okay. That was Sunday 7th August.

On Monday, the weather was so lovely that I took her out at lunchtime and read my book while I ate my lunch outside. She was exploring a lot more and settled down eventually. Since then we've had her outside every day and she's really happy and has even been sitting on the mat scratching the door asking to be let out! I'm really proud of how well she's done and I've been soaking up some sunshine too. Plus, when Lee's been with me, we've enjoyed just sitting on the grass chatting to each other.

It'll be a shame when the weather turns, although I suspect Ivy won't be bothered about going outside much then anyway!

Eating some delicious grass

Exploring. We've blocked up the fence in the corner there where she could have got through. 

I was lying on the grass watching her roll around on the path and took this very cute photo. Love her!