Little People leave Large Holes

I have to begin by apologising for the lack of posting over recent weeks. Pre-winter cold, and an excessive workload have played havoc with yours truely. Hopefully now we can get back on track again here.

A lot of things have happened over the past few weeks, but I'll start with the one which has had the greatest impact on us here. Last week we lost our little cat. She was 17 years old, pretty much blind and deaf, mostly senile, but as sweet as they come. In fact, that was what made the decision harder for us. Had she fallen down and hurt herself, that would have been one thing. But she hadn't, she just wobbled along every day. Not so much wobbling mind, she mostly slept. Because of that, we never really knew how comfortable she was feeling. She had stopped socialising with us, which was way out of character, and had become much more "talkative" in the middle of the night. In the end we decided that we wouldn't take the risk of something going terribly wrong whilst we were away at work. That would be just aweful. It was better that we planned for things in a way which didn't stress her unduely or cause her any serious discomfort. Not an easy decision, but we both knew it was the right one. So we had a very sad day last week and a house which has a very empty feel to it. Even if she was just sleeping upstairs, it always felt nicer coming home. These things take time to adjust to.

Missy had a pretty mixed life. When we first came across her, we lived in a little settlement of just 4 houses, in a forested area about 45 minutes outside of the city. A family moved in to one of the neighbouring properties who had, well, an interesting history. It took us a while to piece the whole situation together. The husband was a lay preacher, which meant naturally that he was a little better than normal people. Or so he believed. Try and keep up with the following, if you can:

He married a woman who had 3 children, 2 boys and a girl. They then had a son together. Shortly after, the husband decided that his step-daughter looked like a better prospect than his wfe. His wife, naturally enough, didn't take this news very well, and promptly ran off and joined a lesbian commune. As you would. The husband then married his step-daughter, and they had 2 children together. Finally, they all packed up and moved down into our neighbourhood.

Figured everything out ?

The man was both the husband and former stepfather of his wife. The two older boys had a step-father who was also their brother-in law. The older daughter had a step-father who was now her husband. She had a step-son who was also her half-brother. The two youngest had a half brother who was also their uncle. The list continues and just get more bizarre. There was some justice at the end of it though, as the man now was faced with an ex-wife who was also his mother-in-law. That'll teach him.

The worst victims of the whole sordid business were the 2 older boys. They were in their mid-teens when I first met them. Two nicer young men you could not ask to meet. One day they boarded the school bus, and simply never came home again. Apparently they had, completely on their own, contacted Social Services and asked for help to be removed from the home. They had found a new place to live, in another town, and asked that their details be withheld from the rest of the family. An absolute tragedy and I hope that they managed to rebuild their lives as best they could. We actually saw them a few years later as we were driving through another city. We saw them, they saw us, but they continued on their way. We decided to respect their wishes and leave them to it.

Shortly after the 2 boys left, the family (for want of a better word) packed up literally overnight and left. Some time later we found their two young cats in the forest, obviously abandoned. We took them home with us, and the story of Sam and Mssy goes from there. 15 years later and Missy passed away in the warmth of a centrally heated room, on the other side of the globe, surrounded by people who loved her. I like to think that she came out on the right side of things.