Gizmo

Those of you who have read my earlier posts will have read about Gizmo's trips to the vets this year. She was diagnosed with kidney problems and also ended up having most of her teeth out. Since then she has been on regular medication and a special diet. When we got home on Saturday after our pub stopover it was clear that Gizmo wasn't well at all. She was refusing to eat and just wanted to curl up in her bed. She spent most of Sunday sleeping, and finally left us Sunday night. She was 17 and a half, a good age for any cat to get to. 

She was our first pedigree cat back in the early days of us having our first house together. We knew nothing about pedigrees, breeding or showing. Gizmo accepted further feline additions to the family with no problems at all - she was the one cat we could rely on to get on with any of the other cats, even when we had fall-outs between any of the others, Gizmo would be able to walk in and stay calm. 

Those of you who are familiar with the GCCF may remember years ago when the Tonkinese breed was trying to gain Championship status. They needed to get through the provisional status and needed cats to win IC's. Gizmo was the first Tonkinese in the UK to be awarded 3 IC's and start the breed off on their journey. This achievement,however, appeared to upset a few people in the Tonkinese world - we weren't breeders and we were very new on the scene. The fact that a well known breeder's cat didn't claim the first IC's was something that people appeared to take offence to. But whatever they thought, they can't take away the fact that our Gizmo did it. 

We have known since her diagnosis that she probably wouldn't have a long time with us. I suppose you always hope they will live a little longer. But it was her time. She had decided. We have lots of happy memories of her - eating hair bobbles, shouting at me. And while I love all my cats, Gizmo will always be my special girl.