Lily

After the highs of my birthday, the following week took a turn for the worse as we had to have our lovely cat, Lily, put to sleep on Wednesday night.

Lily was a lovely, kind and loving cat. She was never ever aggressive; in the 9 years I had known here she had never once scratched me. She spent most of her time eating, sleeping and following Jo around the house. She was definitely mummy's girl. She rarely slept next to me...but she did so whenever I was unwell - which made those times particularly special.

Lily as she should be remembered

We had taken her to the vet on Tuesday as she had really cut down on her food intake - which for Lily was very unusual....like most Sandhu's she liked her meat. She had also become very inactive - no more shouting in the middle of the night and no more trips downstairs to pester us for food as we ate our evening meal. Even without the discussion with the vet we knew Lily's days were numbered. She was deteriorating fast and we knew we could not let her suffer for much longer.

We did our usual 15km run on Wednesday morning - emotionally it was very difficult as Lily was constantly on our mind. Physically the run was quite easy as we were so distracted from the running that we were very relaxed as we ran. Later on Wednesday I went home for lunch just to check-up on Lily and to give her some treats.

Wednesday evening Lily's health had deteriorated further and we decided it was no longer fair on her to let her suffer. We made the very difficult decision to take her to the vet to have her put to sleep. We knew at the start of the year that this was probably going to be her last year - mainly because of the arthritis in her legs, but I had hoped she would have lasted to summer just so that she could have spent her final days in the sunshine, but it just wasn't to be.

Jo wrapped Lily up in a towel and kept her on her lap as we drove through London to the vet. Lily was very quiet (only one little squeak) but she seemed to enjoy the views of London at night, especially the London Eye. At the vets we stayed with Lily right to the very end - keeping our hands on her and speaking to her throughout so she knew we were with her. She passed away very quickly and with no fuss. I guess she was ready to go.

Returning to a home without Lily was very upsetting. We are so used to her presence that a home without her seems very empty and quiet. Going to sleep without seeing Lily and waking up without the Lily wake up call were both equally upsetting.

The healing process began on Thursday morning - with our morning run. It was important for us to talk about Lily, as she was when she was healthy rather than those traumatic final moments. We talked as we ran - hence it forced us to run at a nice easy pace. We continued the reminiscing once we got home after work - once the initial sadness of coming home to an empty house had subsided enough for us to remember the good times.

Jo had got Lily from a rescue home, but it was Lily that had picked Jo. Twice Lily had walked around Jo and sat down in front of her, looking up at her. That was a year or two before I had met Jo, hence they had built up a strong bond before I turned up. Lily has always been a bit apprehensive of me - I think I was bit large and loud for her, but the earliest memory I have of Lily is being woken up by Lily licking my nose - actually it was more of a kiss than a lick :)

That's the Lily we knew and that's the Lily we must remember.