A cold, sad day.

We lost Newton in the night.

He stopped purring yesterday evening so I knew it was time, and I'm very grateful that he died at home and didn't have to be taken to the vets.

We will miss him so much, but he brought us so much happiness while we had him and we have lots to be thankful for.

Newton helping with letters.

Newton was just about well enough yesterday to help me with my thank you notes when I got back from work, I'm supposed to have finished them today but haven't quite managed. They are really lovely ones from Paperchase that I was given as a present last year, with a beautiful pattern and such a great contrast of colours.

It's been a really worrying day today though as Newton was completely off his food, the vet said he'd lost a lot of weight when we took him last night, we can't get him to take his heart tablets at all, no matter what we bury them in (and we were trying tiny bits of cheese and ham from our own dinner!) he won't have them, which can't be good. Just half an hour ago he's been eating again after a special new appetite-increaser-pill from the vet, so we may be able to tempt him later with more deceitfully disguised drugs, but cats know when you're trying to give them medicine! He's happy to be stretched out in front of the stove again this evening where he belongs and is still purring at us, but is definitely deteriorating fast. It's a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, a good day followed by a bad day when I try somehow to prepare for being without him, then a better time when we cling onto the hope he might stabilise for just a bit longer.
I am grateful for friends who understand how devastating it is to face losing a much-loved pet.

Crochet Kitten

I'm not quite ready to get all my wool out and start felting just yet, I need to put all the decorations away first and catch up at the office tomorrow, but I did want to make something little while I still had a few moments spare.
Another good thing about the holidays is the lack of guilt I've felt in having a better look round for lovely blog sites, and in my travels I came across this beautiful one called Marmalade Rose.
Spying a crochet kitten pattern I went straight to it and found it was perfect for me to make out of a bit of spare yarn I had left over from doing a crochet penguin last year! Marmalade Rose has very generously shared it with everyone, for which I'd like to say thank you! I too had seen the original knitting pattern a while ago but I think the crochet one is much nicer!

It's taken me a while as black yarn is difficult to see in electric light and we don't seem to be getting much daylight at the moment (unless some of us are getting up early, which I'm not), but I finally finished sewing him up today. I have to say I was doing the tail last night and ended up going quite wrong as I kept losing sight of the tops of the stitches in the round below and ended up decreasing too much towards the end, but then kittens have very pointy tails so I thought it would be fine!

My own lovely cat is very weak and has started coughing, which is a bad sign as it means fluid is probably starting to build up in his lungs, I spend a lot of time checking to see if he's still breathing, which is not very relaxing.
He's searching out every bit of sunshine he can find.

Here he is snoozing on the window sill - he can't quite be bothered to fit all of himself behind one blind as he's so long, and you can just see his black nose in the gap underneath.

Post Christmas Recovery

In the end our Christmas day was a good one, although it could so easily have been extremely sad.

Newton came home on Christmas Eve (with a bill for over £1,000 - covered thankfully by our insurance) after three days at the vets being poked, shaved and tested. We didn't expect him to survive the night as he looked so very poorly and couldn't move, but we found him much brighter on Christmas day and he weakly joined in with some unwrapping. Here he is where he shouldn't be on the table after lunch with the racing santas and reindeer we had in our crackers.

According to the specialist who did an ultrasound, he has quite advanced heart failure - he's eight so we weren't prepared for him to be so very ill. Today he feels much better and is doing all the things he shouldn't be like jumping, playing and trying to escape into the garden. His heart tablets seem to be helping but you can see by the way his chest is moving how hard his poor heart is having to work and he's living on borrowed time a bit.

So we're trying to make the most of each day with him and he's getting spoiled with posh pouches of food that he would never normally be allowed!

Christmas decorations and a very ill cat

I was more organised than ever this year with my Christmas cleaning and decorating, and was so enjoying the bright sunny days and the light sprinkling of snow that we had here.

I love putting the decorations in their tried-and-tested places - here are just a few.Yesterday just as I was nearly finished and planning to settle down to some festive cooking, Newton decided that this was the perfect time to collapse with severe breathing problems and had to be rushed to the vets, where he is spending his second night tonight. We all miss him and it's been a really worrying time.
I'm ridiculously attached to him as he is my constant companion, so affectionate and full of character, so it's hard to be cheerful, but at least he is being well looked after - we went to see him today and he is in an incubator on oxygen. So we hope he can be home soon, it's not the same without him trying to walk all over the presents under the tree. But I'm thankful of course that it's not one of the boys who is seriously ill.

I hope all of you have a very Happy Christmas and are able to have a rest at some stage!

Cold Cat in a Circle.

Newton thinks it is too cold now and spends most of his time like this, how they get so round is a mystery to me - do they KNOW they're in a perfect circle?

When he is not asleep he is observing the world out of the front window while sitting on my basket of supplies.

Or observing me taking his picture before he swipes me with his paw to tell me to stop.

Crochet Cat versus Real Cat

Now the weather is turning cooler, our cat Newton wants to be as warm as possible, which usually means climbing as high as he can and squeezing into a basket a couple of sizes too small. Here he is in the kitchen ontop of our tallest cupboard, just above the cat I made last year to almost match him.