Remembering Popsy 19/10/2000 – 16/8/2006

Remembering Popsy 19/10/2000 – 16/8/2006

by Barbara
(Shildon, UK)

My late husband John and I first met Popsy when she came to us in September 2001, an unwanted bundle of black fur with big yellow eyes, she’d been passed from pillar to post in the effort to be “got rid of”.

She came with a covered-in litter tray that she insisted on sitting in for the first few hours until I managed to coax her out with tinned tuna and a hairbrush. She soon settled in and, though we’d been told she didn’t like to go outside, within a week she’d driven us mad so we let her go into the garden and there she stayed enjoying her own little patch and that of the elderly neighbour who came to love her too, but not as much as we did.

While John was alive there was always friendly rivalry between Popsy and me, we two became three and I often thought it was me who was the extra one. John and Popsy worshipped each other but they only had eighteen months together before John died. So Popsy moved to Shildon and joined Ebony, Walter and Jozef and her Auntie Ruth who quickly became another mammy to her as she settled in and made her own unique place, and I was there too.

Popsy loved her Grandma Ebony and used to sit with her many an hour in the front doorway watching the world go by. She also loved Jozef and he loved her and used to give her head-butties and nape bites, they used to love to chase each other and play rough sometimes, and Popsy would spring out from behind the chair and ride Jozef like a jockey. She also loved Temuri who used to live next door but who had to move away. Walter and she never did bond but they rubbed along mostly and we always looked out for her safety when he was around.

She loved to sit on our knees or lie on our chests and if either of us laid on the settee she would be there like a flash, even if she was out at the time she always knew someone was lying down and would jump in the window and shout “Hello” in her own lovely little voice. She used to knead the tops of our arms and it hurt when her claws dug in but she was so happy doing it no-one would have the heart to stop her, she used to do it to John too, cuddled up in bed with him, so he used to put a bandage on his arm before he went to bed so it dulled the pain!

She was a little ray of sunshine, always around to help out with whatever we were doing and always talking to us, she loved fish from the fish shop or done in milk in the microwave but she didn’t like butter or cream. She used to run along the Grove to meet either Ruth or me when we came home from shopping or work, whoever was in the house would say “She’s coming” and Popsy would be off, running along the pavement with her tail held high and tipped over at the end, then she would walk back along the wall beside us, high enough for kisses and cuddles all the way home. She loved to catch moths and butterflies by the scruff of their necks and help the boys if they brought a mouse home.

But she became poorly with her chest, she battled for eight weeks and no matter what treatments the vet tried she was her usual sunny self, the nurses at the vet hospital loved her, it was impossible not to love her. She was brave, she always was, as we found out later that as a kitten she was put out at night and bathed weekly to prevent her “smelling of cat.” She had an anaesthetic to have a chest x-ray and stopped breathing but she was saved and came home and still loved us as long as she was able to. But in the end nothing could save her life. On her last night at home she brought home one last moth at quarter to midnight and she was well and happy but the next day her breathing was bad again and she went into the vet hospital poorly.

On the next day we were referred to another vet but it was too late and she died before we could see him. She was cremated on the 17th August 2006 and her ashes scattered in the garden of rest where those of another beloved cat, Bryan, lay, and now her grandma Ebony is there too.

It didn’t seem possible that at five years old her life was over and we would never see, hear or hold her again, she was a wonderful cat in every way and we loved her so much. It was, and still is, unbearable.

God Bless Popsy, little love, with Daddy now, one day we'll all be together again X X

Barbara avatar

Comments for
Remembering Popsy 19/10/2000 - 16/8/2006

Click here to add your own comments

Oct 19, 2011 Another year gone by
by: Ruth

Remembering dear little Popsy on her 11th birthday, still very much loved and missed and always will be.

Kattaddorra signature Ruth


Oct 19, 2010 Popsy's birthday
by: Ruth

Remembering Popsy on her 10th birthday.
There is still a huge gap in the house, we love and miss dear little Popsy very much and always will.
xx mammies, Jo and Walt xx

Kattaddorra signature Ruth


Aug 17, 2010 Remembering Popsy
by: Rose

R.I.P little sweetheart.
Auntie Rose
x


Aug 17, 2010 RIP
by: Petra

RIP little girl, you were well loved by your family. What a tragically short life she had though and I'm sure memories of her are nowhere near enough when you want her with you in person. xx


Aug 16, 2010 Popsy.
by: pammy

Thank you for setting up this site in memory of little Popsy. It was a very short life, but I very full one .... full of love and being loved so much. Popsy was a happy and contented little cat and such a character.
Popsy enriched your lives so much and is now happily with John and keeping him company...
Each cat has their own personality,and Popsy was one of those rare cats who seemed almost human!
Popsy will live in your hearts forever....


Aug 16, 2010 Thank you
by: Barbara

Thank you everyone for your kind words, it was nice to be able to remember my special girl, the worst thing is if they are forgotten isn't it?. Even after four years the pain in my heart makes me want to double up, I miss her so much. xx to my little love.

Sylvia Ann I'm racking my brains, I have seen something within the last few days about the virus needing a deep bite to be passed on, I'm sure the article I saw dismissed sharing a food bowl as being dangerous, if only I could find it again. I don't think I'd worry too much (Ha! Easier said than done I know)about one little slip.

Barbara avatar


Aug 16, 2010 In Loving Memory of Popsy
by: Maggie Sharp

Rest in Peace Popsy. This article here is evidence that your short time upon this earth will always be cherished. May your memory live on forever.

In loving memory of Popsy.


Aug 16, 2010 Remembering Popsy
by: Silvia

I was honoured to have known Popsy for a very short time, and during that time she made a lasting impression. She was a truly beautiful little girl, she went quietly about life, knowing that she was loved and adored by Barbara, who gave her twice as much love after she lost her Daddy, and Auntie Ruth. A precious little girl taken from this world too soon. RIP special girl. Auntie and the family at no 14


Aug 16, 2010 To Sylvia Ann
by: Ruth

Sylvia Ann if you'd like to email me at my google address on the ban declawing petition,I'll email you back from there.
x

Kattaddorra signature Ruth


Aug 16, 2010 R.I.P Popsy
by: Ruth

My heart broke for Babz when she lost Popsy, having already lost her John.They were such a happy little family, not asking for much, but cruel fate stepped in.
I loved Popsy too very very much and am crying now as I miss her so much, but it was and still is as thousand times harder for Babz than for me.
R.I.P little Poppy Seed, Auntie misses you and always will.
XX

Kattaddorra signature Ruth


Aug 16, 2010 Barbara - 3
by: Sylvia Ann

I’m sick clear down to the marrow of my bones. I didn’t bring him into this house so he could become infected and die before his time. The only ray of hope I can think of is--there were two dollops of canned cat food on Ethel’s plate: one was chicken & liver, and the other whitefish. I’m perhaps 85 percent certain she ate only the fish and didn’t touch the chicken. But who knows? Though I yelled at McWee and swooped the dish up from the floor, I’m sure only a miracle could prevent him from having ingested some of Ethel’s saliva. Is he as good as dead and gone? Does Ruth have a opinion?

Somewhere on this website is an older essay explaining the symptoms/mortality rate of cats infected with FeLV, an explanation I found bewildering. If I rightly recall, it stated not only that 35-45 percent of cats SURVIVE the scourge, but that 85-90 percent of them DIE within 3½ years or so. Which is it? Or does their ‘survival’ mean only that they survive the initial infection, which then becomes latent and flares up again in a couple of years, killing the cat? To compound the confusion, my vet – when I took her in last October – said FeLV cats can live into their dotage. Did he mean what he said, or was he just trying to comfort me? Are my beloved kitty-man and my little Ethel going to die in a year or two? Does Ruth know anything about this affliction? Right now, I could kick myself downstairs.

Written in haste....

Ruth - thank you again for a heartfelt, memory-lane portrait of your wonderful cat.


Aug 16, 2010 Barbara - 2
by: Sylvia Ann


At long last, however, she recovered on her own –with no diagnosis and no medication. Since then, she’s been perfectly happy and seemingly healthy. She’s pleasingly plump, full of fun, has a lustrous fur coat, scampers up and downstairs during playtime, insists on being pet and made much of all day long, etc.

Nevertheless, last October her blood test showed positive for FeLV. I was devastated. Does Ruth think her illness might have been the onset of this virus?

Whatever the answer,Inspector McWee is my second housecat, a apple-headed Siamese I brought from Seattle when I moved into this house in 2005. He’s nicely preserved,has never shown any symptoms of illness, is slender but eats well, and may now be 17 or 18 years old.(Thirteen years ago, his former owners sold their house and drove off in a cloud of dust, leaving him behind.)

I’ve always kept McWee and Ethel apart: when one is upstairs the other is down – when one’s out on the sun porch, the other is in. But last night....oh, m’Gawd…I’m heartsick.

We’ve had no sun in this neck of the woods since February – nothing but gray skies every day. But yesterday we had a scorcher. The temperature soared to 96 degrees F. (sorry – don’t know Centigrade). I was frazzled,the house was sweltering, the cats were meowing, and I was in process of letting Ethel out on the porch and McWee back in. In the 15 seconds it took to open the door for her, McWee slipped past me and into the kitchen. As I stood on the porch for a moment or two, it suddenly hit me like a sledgehammer Oh no....oh no! I slammed the porch door and flew back into the kitchen --but I was too late. I’d forgotten to lift Ethel’s plate off the floor, and there was McWee, eating from her plate, from which she’d eaten minutes earlier.


Aug 16, 2010 Barbara-------
by: Sylvia Ann

You wrote such a beautiful, touching remembrance of Popsy. What an exceptional kitty she was:she had enough personality to bottle and sell. Your husband was young and very nice looking, and also looked exceedingly kind. I admire a man whose love for animals extends beyond that for his hunting dog. It looks as if he and Popsy had a mutual admiration bond.

My computer illiteracy prevents me from understanding how to post a blog – all I can do is comment on other contributors’ postings. Since yours was about Poppy, it’s inappropriate of me to veer off on a tangent, but I don’t know how else to talk with you. Ruth wrote me a nice response several days ago, one to which I’ve not yet replied. Specifically, she'd mentioned that she’d worked in a veterinary clinic, and also that she’d lost a beloved cat some years back – which might have been Popsy, as she said the vet was unable to diagnose the illness. I wish to write to Ruth as there’s something I very much wanted to ask her, but doubt she’ll check back into the older ‘declaw clinic’ blog.

Yesterday, I was horrorstricken to have let the unthinkable happen. I’ve read somewhere that FeLV tests occasionally give both false positive and negative readings. I would imagine the blood test is more reliable than the saliva test, but am incompetent to judge.

Be that as it may, please tell Ruth, if you would, that the cat mentioned in my post – the cat who received no help from the vet – was Little Ethel. Twenty months ago, she fell ill for five weeks. She was so sick her eyes were unfocused and she spent the entire time in bed on a warm heating pad while I tried to keep up her strength by hand-feeding her three and four times a day. I was sure she was dying; her abdomen had such a cluster of lymph nodes, I thought at first she’d been kicked by someone or struck by a car and had herniated.


Aug 15, 2010 Darling Popsy
by: Leah

Such a sweet little life over too soon but at least those years of her life with you were so very happy; she sounded like a little angel. Isn't it funny that some cats are truly overflowing with love?

You did all you could to save her life it seems it was her weekly baths and being left out all night that did the damage.

She loved all her family so much thank god for her time with you all.


Aug 15, 2010 Hi
by: Michael

Hi Barbara. What a wonderful eulogy for Popsy. I get a real sense of how she was a treasured family member.

Thanks for sharing the memories here.


2 thoughts on “Remembering Popsy 19/10/2000 – 16/8/2006”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. Although all those years have gone by there is still a little long haired cat shaped gap in our lives and she is still so sadly missed and loved. RIP little love xx

  3. Remembering Popsy who left us 7 years ago today, where do the years go.
    R.I.P little girl xx

Leave a Comment

follow it link and logo