RIP Bonnie and Coco

When I was 10 we moved across town and our "reward" for moving and leaving our friends was that we could get a nice kitty. We'd had a cat where we were living who was a horrid stray who hated people and never came near us anyway...

So mum was working with the prison services, and one of the farm cats had kittens, and someone tried to drown them all. The only survivor was a little 2/3 week old tabby. So mum brought him home and we had to feed the little guy with an eye dropper because he still wasn't weaned. We thought he was a little girl so named her Bonnie. Then he grew boy bits... Oops

While he was still young, we got a second kitty - Coco. A beautiful black Oriental Siamese. She was such a pretty girl, and the kitties became fast friends.

Bonnie was a ratbag. He was always getting into trouble - he'd get into fights with other cats, and we got to know our local vet very well, and got to know how to clean cysts very well He got hit by a car when he was young and we found him lying in the gutter! Unbelieveably he was still alive. We got him to the vet and his top jaw was completely split in two down the middle. It had to be wired shut, and when he came home we had to syringe feed him while he healed.

When he was 10, he had a lump on his leg, which continued to grow. We got it cut out, but it grew back worse and was wrapped around the nerves and muscle in his leg, so it was decided his leg had to be amputated. They said even though he was older, he should deal with it fine.

And he did. We got him home, and he hopped out of his cage and around the house with no problems

Coco was always my cat. She would always cuddle me and follow me around. She was such a sweet cat, and even after I'd moved out, she always remember me when I visited home, and would meow and meow at me untilI cuddled her

We went back to Australia in November/December and Coco had gotten incredibly grey, and Bonnie was having trouble hopping around - I could tell he wasn't comfortable and it would be the last time I saw them. I gave them lots of attention, and took heaps of photos, but I had no idea they'd go so soon.

Mum said Bonnie was getting worse, and was having issues moving around, was meowing in pain regularly, and she though he was beginning to get kitty senility as well - he often seemed confused.

She finally decided the best thing for him was to have him put down. She said it was incredibly heartbreaking. He was just staring up at her at the vets while she was talking to the vet and the vet was getting prepared.

Then after that Coco was just inconsolable. She's had Bonnie by her side for 16 years and it was too much for her. She was just pacing the house constantly fretting and meowing and wouldn't settle. Mum would come home after work and coming through the front gates of her complex - a good couple of hundred metres from her unit and out of sight from it, she could hear Coco yowling and she knew Coco had just been stressing all day.

So she made the hard decision to have her put to sleep as well.

Both kitties lived good, long lives, being 17 and 16, and were able to pass away knowing they were loved.

RIP kitties.

Bonnie:


Coco: