Farewell Haggis the Cat

Gosh it's been 10 days since my last blog entry. Well a sad event took place the day I was going to write something new: our cat Haggis very unexpectdly died. He was only 7 years old! And he'd only used 4 of his 9 lives!

Every time he used a life it was hilarious.

The first time he used a life Mike and I were both working in the office, upstairs. Back then, Haggis would jump on top of the desk to sit on the windowsill. That day, it was quite warm so the window was open. The window is right over the front door, and the front door protrudes a little from the rest of the house so there is a roof starting right underneath the office window going over the front door (if that makes sense). Well what does Haggis decide to do? Let's have a wander on that roof! Except the roof is in a much steeper slope than he thought and that was him skidding down the roof, onto the gutter, then flop onto the front lawn!!! If you can picture how it happened it will no doubt make you laugh. I rushed downstairs to make sure he was all right, but cats always fall on their paws so by the time I got down he was wandering off to a neighbour's garden.

The second time was in winter. To save on heating bills, we very often light up candles in the living room. It might not be that money-saving because we have to regularly spend money repainting the walls as the soot lies everywhere. Anyway, that day we had a candle lit in the windowsill, with the curtains open enough so that they wouldn't catch fire. Haggis LOVED winsowsills (as all cats do I suppose). What does he do? Jumps on the windowsill and looks out. Sees a bird, gets his tail wagging. Well what should have happened, happened and his tail caught fire!! We screamed and started to rush to him, but our screams scared him, he jumped off the windowsill onto the carpet and the motion took the fire out. Phew! The smell was pretty horrid after that! But it still has us in giggles every time we think about it!

The third time I was away for a few days on a work trip. So I can only tell the story as Mike told it to me, and he may well have made it sound better than what it actually was! Mike is always hot when he sleeps, so he took advantage of me being away to have the bedroom door open, and the windows wide open. Another windowsill for Haggis to sit on. Picture the scene: middle of the night, a bit warm so Mike is slightly awake. He is aware of Haggis on the windowsill because as the cat jumped up there, the bell on his collar chimed (possibly what woke Mike in the first place). It's June, so the birds are up early in the morning. What we think happened was that a bird flew by the window, close enough for Haggis to think he was going to be able to catch it. Well, he didn't and fell off the window down to the patio at the back door!! Mike burst into laughter and quickly checked if the cat was fine downstairs, then left him outside to chase more birds.

With regards to the last life he used, we're not quite sure what happened as we were upstairs while Haggis was downstairs. Winter again, so candles lit in the living room. Dinner was cooking away, and I'd just put on the steaks to fry, so had gone upstairs to tell Mike dinner was just about ready. We then smelt burnt so rushed downstairs, believing the steaks were burning. They were fine. Couldn't figure out where the smell had come from. We sat down to dinner. After our meal I decided to brush Haggis (he LOVED being brushed). And it's as I was brushing him that it downed on us where the burnt smell had come from! He'd burnt his tail again! It was only a bit of fluff (fluffy cats are best) and somewhow he'd managed to take the fire out by himself, but we're not quite sure how! 

In the end it was a weak heart and lungs full of liquid that took him to cat heaven. It was very sudden as he'd only started struggling to breathe on Monday, I took him to the vet's on Tuesday and he died there. We buried him in his favourite spot in the garden, using his favourite stone as a marker, and put his favourite things in with him: his food bowl, fish on a string, squieaky mouse on a string, brush and purple ball. Hard thing to do, that was! To commemorate how much he made us laugh at times, he is buried in an empty Tesco's box of frozen peas bags... :)

 Haggis is on the front door step on this photo

    Here Haggis is on the armrest