Kali loved to spend time outdoors, either exploring or sitting in the sunshine and enjoying its warmth. During the winter she didn’t go out as much, as she hated the cold, and instead enjoyed the odd game of chase to keep up her hunting skills.
She loved to be up at a height where she could see what was going on, and that would allow her to join in and be sociable – kitchen worktops, shelves, top of the TV, nearest cupboard or door, were all favourite spots for her. She also loved to inspect everything and didn’t like closed doors, wanting to know what was behind them and demanding that they be opened for her.
Her favourite of all the things we ever bought for her was the ‘climbing frame’, with platforms where she could sit and look out of the window to watch the birds.
As you can imagine, she quickly became the focus of our day. Our first thoughts in the morning would be: Where’s Kali? Is she up yet and has she had breakfast? On returning home we would often be greeted with demands to know where we’d been, and cries for a treat to compensate for being left alone, even if only for half an hour, and even if she’d been asleep for this time!
I’m very grateful to have had these years with her. I was going through some challenges and she was like a ray of sunshine, always there, brightening my day with her presence, warming my heart, sharing her feline wisdom and often making me smile. These last few weeks were hard, knowing that the end was approaching, but beautiful too as I felt we deepened our connection and she shared new lessons with me about respecting the ageing process and how to approach it with grace and openness.
On Monday I’ll share more about this journey and some of the challenges it brought.