The legendary 'Shady' - on his last legs.....mmmmm

Having been abroad for a few days I noticed a very marked difference in Shady's condition on my return to Berko.....for those who don't know him, Shady is the lovely old jet black, silky velvet furred cat whom I 'inherited' from Kiri (te K) when she moved out of Leatherhead, Surrey in to London - no pets allowed in the new home. Shady and I met originally when I lived at Kiri's, after I retired as Studio Controller of The University of Birmingham Performing Arts Department. Kiri was returning from a stint as principal soprano of The Metropolitan Opera, New York, and invited me to join her and the family, residing in their garden cottage - " to be around, restore their antiques which had suffered the ravages of central heating in their American house, drive them around as required, and 'just be useful' " ..! Those were very happy years, and several Swedish singers joined me there to 'have a breathe' at Kiri's invitation. Eventually the breathing took over, and when Kiri moved, I returned to Hertfordshire, but have spent much of my time since then in Sweden. Shady is quite a character, and whilst at the Leatherhead house was often in some crisis or other...he would climb out onto a low branch of an oak tree, several feet out over the lake, stocked with golden carp, try to catch a fish - fall in, and drag himself out through slimy, smelly mud, looking more like a large rat than a cat - !! One dark evening he went missing and a general search was made. He could be heard mewing loudly, but we couldn't see him - until a torch beam revealed him 20 feet up a tree, scared and unwilling to venture down. A ladder was found and Shady was retrieved by a brave man who brought him down on his shoulder - which Shady clung on to with very sharp claws - ouch...He, Shady then walked elegantly away, tail straight up, head held high as though nothing untoward had happened - tttttt..! What a feline character.... In his prime he loved to chase a woolly toy, stuffed with catnip, at the end of a long cane, jump on it, and scrag the hell out of it with his back paws - those were the days, such fun...Today he is looking very frail, haunches (hips) unsteady, thin, eyesight failing, not eating, only sipping water, nor singing in his usual impressive baritone, so I called the vet who thinks it would be better to let Shady go to 'catty paradise' before I go away again next week - it will be an awful wrench in the heart - he's over twenty years old and lived here in Berko since 1994 ....now his breathing is sounding a little bronchitic, so it's time to go Dear Moggy....hope you're all feeling fit and well.....k..p b.......g....