Goodbye Ethel, 1999-2016

(It took this event to prompt the first post to this neglected blog in almost 2 years…)

Click photos for larger images.

This afternoon, we said goodbye to Ethel, who’s been with us since she came here as a kitten in October, 1999.

But age has been hard on her for the past several months. Her arthritis has been painful, although helped by codeine treatments we’ve been giving her. To ease her joints, she began spending more time lying on the heated bathroom floor. Since we cranked the heat up for her, she rarely left that floor, except to cry once or twice a night for us to lift her onto our bed.

She has been eating less and less, and so today, we brought in Dr Faith Banks, a vet who makes house calls, and who came here about 4 years ago for Ethel’s “sister”, Lucy. We were glad Ethel could have a quiet, peaceful final time in her home.

Lucy & Ethel (kittens)

Ethel was a mischievous soul. When she & Lucy came here at about the same time, they were utterly inseparable, at least for a few months. Then Ethel’s inner pest developed, alongside Lucy’s innate victimhood. It wasn’t a good combination for Lucy.

When Charlie came into the house about 8 years ago, Ethel made it clear to him that she was the boss of the house, using well-timed bops to his head, or swats to his bum. (Charlie didn’t mind). A couple of their boxing matches are on 2 brief videos at the bottom of this page.

Ethel was a great mouser in her younger days. Our elderly neighbour, no fan of mice, would often say “God Bless Ethel”. Other neighbours have fond (or not) memories of falling asleep to, or being kept up by, the sound of the two of us walking up the street, very late at night calling “Ethel… Ethel…”. She would come home from her nocturnal rambles when she was ready.

Those days were in the past for her — for some time now, her night time has been spent watching TV beside Oksana — but we’ll always remember how much she once loved the night, and how, in her much younger days, she could leap 3 feet in the air, when she was playing with some of her toys.

She’s in our back garden now, together with Jade, who died, very young about a month before Ethel was born.

Click photos for larger images.