Sauntering Vaguely Downward

Thank you very much to everyone who left a kind, sympathetic comment on my last post. And thank you also to those who read and felt sympathy but didn't have energy to comment. I hope no one will be offended if I don't respond to them individually. It's hard for me to look at them en masse without bursting into tears at the moment.

I will completely understand if you don't want to read the following, which contains a description of Sputnik's death. It was important to me to write it out as part of the grieving process, but it's not by any means pleasant to read even if I have left out the details. Hence, it's under a cut and all comments are screened.

( Finding Sputnik. )

Telstar brought us half a squirrel last night. (Usually we are only presented with trophy tails.) He & Sputnik used to share their bigger kills, so I think he was confused about why he was being left to eat the whole thing.

In an effort to salvage something positive from what was a rather depressing weekend, I took my 100mm macro lens to the new(ish) Orchid House in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens on Sunday afternoon.

( Orchid, orchid, orchid, purple thing, hellebore )

[Image of two yellow-eyed tuxedo cats. The one on the left lying down is Telstar. The one looking at the camera on the right is Sputnik.]

Unfortunately it is not the joyous occasion it usually is, because Sputnik has gone missing.

We last saw him the evening of Wednesday 7 March, where he ate his gooshy food and a tiny bit of cantaloupe (he's mad for melon) with gusto. Our neighbour says she saw him playing with his brother - by which she probably means "fighting" - in our garden during the day on Thursday 8 March. No one saw him yesterday.

We questioned Telstar. He has been in the house a good deal, which is very unlike him.

Me: "Telstar, what did you do with your little brother?"
Telstar: "Mrow!"
Me: "Do you know where he is?"
Telstar: *purrrrrrr*
Me: "Is he trapped in a shed? Could you show us?"
Telstar: *winds around legs*
Me: "Did you do him in and bury his body in the woods so you could have all the goosh forever?"
Telstar: "Mrow?"

etc. So you can see how fruitful that line of enquiry was.

The bloke created a "Lost Cat" flyer and canvassed the neighbours last night. He also phoned the Blue Cross, who said any vet or facility that took him in would scan him for his microchip immediately and would contact us. One of our neighbours said her cat got locked in a shed in the allotments behind our house, so once it gets to be a reasonable hour of the morning, we'll go there and ask to walk around and call for him.