Stumpy - August 2005 to 11 November 2009

We brought Stumpy home on 5 June 2006 as a foster after she had been hit by a car. Her pelvis was fractured with a couple of small breaks, and she had a broken tail which had been amputated.

She rested for 2 1/2 weeks at the shelter, then came home with me, and worked her way into my heart. Despite her injuries she was such a sweet girl, and would always run to greet us at the bedroom door, with her back legs swaying all over the place from her injuries. Keeping her quiet was near impossible.

Over the next 3 1/2 years she showed her impish side, chewing on every cable she could - mostly when she was annoyed at not getting enough attention and would chew on the cable closest to where we were sitting. She would tear around the house like a maniac, leap up walls, climb all over our dining chairs scratching them to no end, and go sliding across our wooden dining table, well and truly leaving her mark. She drove the other cats nuts, because she just wanted to play constantly, and her version of play is like WWF wrestling, whereas Smudge and Lily's version of play is more slap and run. She would get everywhere she wasn't supposed to, and make it clear when she wanted to play. She was such a naughty girl

But she was also the sweetest, most intuitive cat I'd ever met. She was not a lap cat, and hated being picked up. She would follow me around all day at home. Wherever I was, Stumpy was sure to be. Whenever I was sick, she would come and sit by me purring away. When I had my open heart surgery, she would lie by my chest and purr, like she was trying to heal me. After we lost Joshua, anytime I would get upset at home, she would come running from wherever she was in the house, and come and curl up next to me and purr. She just KNEW when something was wrong, and would want to try and fix it. I have never met a cat as intuitive as Stumpy, she was my healer. She also protected me. I hate when Andrew is away, but when he was, she would sleep on the bed with me rather than in her bed by our door. If she heard a funny noise during the day outside, she would run to the front door growling.

Whenever we came home, she would run to her Alpine Scratcher by the front door and scratch on it in greeting. If she wanted a pat, she would walk up to us, and roll over, show us her belly and purrrrrrrrrr until she got a belly rub.

I will miss her so much. She was such a good companion, and she did not deserve to be taken so soon.

Apparently she had a major underlying heart problem - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which could not have been picked up in her annual check ups or through her blood work, and she would have never have had a long life, despite the fact she looked so healthy. Putting her in the kennel put just enough stress on her little body, and caused her to go into acute heart failure. 24 hours of oxygen therapy and medication were not helping enough, and caused her to also go into kidney failure. She was depressed, and exhausted and hadn't really eaten for almost 6 days by this stage, and not being able to give her the required medication to help her be able to breathe properly due to her kidney failure were enough for Andrew and I to make the very difficult decision to have her euthanised immediately rather than trying to keep her going for another 3 days before one of us could get back from our trip back to Australia.

It was such a shock for such a young, healthy cat to go into such sudden heart failure and not be able to do anything, or be there for her. We were lucky to have an amazing neighbour who brought her home from the kennel and noticed something wasn't right, and got her to the vet ASAP, and was there for her when she crossed the rainbow bridge. Stumpy knew we loved her, and had a good friend to her by her side.

We will miss her crazy antics, and her absence will be greatly felt and greatly missed.

Rest in peace Stumpy, you were such a good friend.