Today was the first time in almost fourteen years that I wasn’t woken up by a desparate meowing from just outside my bedroom at some ungodly hour because somebody had decided it was time to get fed.
That was Hector in a nutshell, always afraid that he wouldn’t be fed, always convinced there was something just that little bit more yummy than whatever was in his bowl already. When Sandra and I moved here with our first cat Monty back in 2005, we decided that he needed a little friend to keep him company as he couldn’t go roam the streets anymore. So off we popped to the local animal shelter and one little friend became two, as when we found this little cutie, we found her playing with a small three legged tomcat and we couldn’t bring ourselves to separate them. She became Sophie, he became Hector.
As we were told it, he was found in a sewer drain, his back leg almost bitten through, probably a rat and it had been amputated when he came to the shelter. He never really missed it as far as we could tell. His own remaining back paw grew to twice the size of a normal cat’s, while his shoulder muscles belonged on a cat three times his size. He couldn’t jump, but boy could he sling his claws in you and hoist himself up if he wanted to sit in your lap. He did get a bit frustrated though when he wanted to scratch the side of his head his missing paw was on. The stump would move but he just couldn’t figure out why the itchiness didn’t disappear…
In the summer you wouldn’t see him until it was time for dinner. He’d spent his days somewhere in the garden complex inside the block our house was on, sunning himself in one of the neighbours’ gardens. He had a special bond with our next door neighbour and with the neighbour’s pet bunny, whom he seemed fascinated with. Perhaps because it had a similar gait as himself. But if the way he walked resembled a rabbit, his personality was more puppy than kitten. Enthusiastic, goofy, energetic, always wanting to be around you or near you, but not much for laying still. He was everybody’s friend, even though he was a bit of a scaredy cat with strangers.
He could be incredibly annoying and underfoot and I’ll miss him terribly.