BEAUTY

This is a tribute to my furry companion of fifteen years- Beauty. She passed away on Monday 16 January 2012.

She was feral cat. She was one of two in the litter, born about the 19 October 1996. Her mother left her and her sibling on the backdoor step of my friend Margaret's house. Margaret invited me to take one of the kittens and my niece Sarah and I selected Beauty.
I already had a four year old cat called Fern. She took to Beauty immediately and treated her as her baby.
At that time we were living in an upstairs flat in Kingston, Wellington.

She was very cute and playful. At Christmas 1996, Sarah looked after her while I went on holiday. After that she and Fern always stayed at Maria's Cattery in Strathmore. She never trusted Mary and Neil and was always grumpy at the cattery. While Fern was alive, she  used to stay in a caravan and liked that.

Beauty soon grew bigger than Fern but to Fern she was always the baby and she would go out looking for her if she was late in. Here Beauty is eating Fern's meal after eating her own, but Fern doesn't mind.

Later she outgrew the basket and graduated to the sleeping igloo.

Beauty was the gentlest of the three cats I had and was absolutely devoted to me. She was a one person cat.
She loved the second home in Karori as we had a large lawn and a stand of native bush. She disappeared into this for a few days after we moved and I thought we had lost her. She returned at one o'clock in the morning and me and Fern fell on her.

She liked to sleep on my bed with Fern and she had a curious habit of wrapping her fat tail around Fern.

When I sold the house in Karori, we lived in a flat in Northland, which was tough on the cats as there was no land and no territory for them. They were both very pleased when we moved to Stokes Valley.
Fern passed away after we had been here for only a year. Beauty mourned her for some time. I didn't get another cat to replace her as I didn't think Beauty would take to another cat. So she was the last of my cats.
Just over four years ago, I established a Meditation Group at my home on Friday nights and Beauty always meditated with us, sitting along side one of the group. Each day in the morning and evening she would sit with me.
As she got older she darkened in colouring and slept a lot. About four months ago she began to lose weight and sleep a lot. She would curl up with the Paddington Bear my mother made in the library.

She was a very loving cat and the house is empty without her.
Yesterday I planted a wild flower garden in her memory and I look forward to all the beautiful flowers appearing.