THERE'S SADNESS IN VILLAIN TOWERS JUST NOW...

About five and a half years ago the wee fella pictured above came into our lives.

Mrs V picked him out from many others at a Cat Rescue centre as she felt that the cat we had just taken on from a family who had just had a baby needed a companion given that we were out of the house all day.

He arrived at Villain Towers as a scrawny undernourished bag of bones....nobody knew his name or his age..just that he had been found abandoned in a housing estate in Glasgow known for its problems with drugs, crime and violence.  If he hadn't been rescued there's a chance some of the local kids might have had 'fun' with him.

I took one look at him and christened him Jarvis cos he was so tall and skinny.

He was nourished back to health slowly but surely...it took a wee while to win hist trust...and the above photo from Summer 2007 was maybe 6 months or so after he moved in.

I've never been a huge lover of pets....Mrs V on the other hand has spent much of her life surrounded by cats.  I never understood the attraction until Jarvis came on the scene.  For some reason he came to like me after those initial few weeks...again you can only speculate whether he was mistreated by a previous male owner....and any time I sat down he was up on the chair beside me looking for a wee bit of affection.  It worked both ways mind you, anytime I was feeling low or poorly and lying down on a bed or couch you could guarantee that Jarvis would be right up beside me as if to say everything was going to be fine.

In recent years he has given us a few health scares and we've run up some scary bills at the vets dealing with issues around his bladder, kidneys and eyes.  He was also diagnosed as having a heart murmur but the signs were he had probably had it since he was born and had adapted to it naturally.  It was heard to imagine all this as he was a hugely active cat, always out and about in the garden and surrounding streets quite prepared to fight if another cat dared venture into his territory.

On the evening of Friday 24 August, Jarvis very suddenly passed away.

I came in from work just after 5pm to find him slumped in the kitchen next to his food and water and Charley our other cat in a bit of distress.  Mrs V rushed back from her work in a taxi and we immediately took Jarvis round to the vet, a practice who know him all too well from all past visits, although this was his first time in 2012 after the big scare he gave us just before last Christmas.  After giving him a check-up and not being able to diagnose anything obvious - his heart rate was fine but he had a slight temperature - the vet gave him some antibiotics, some pain killers and some vitamins which was thought would kick in quickly and bring a wee bit of spark back.

If anything he was getting worse, showing signs of stress and beginning to cry out in pain.  It was decided the best place for him would be overnight in a nearby vet's hospital and we set off on that 10 minute drive.  We were no more than 30 seconds from the door when Jarvis let out two anguished and very loud cries and his head slumped to the side.  I ran into the vets...he was still breathing...the vet took one look and in a scene like something out of ER picked him up and ran into a room saying she was putting him on oxygen.  No more than 30 seconds later she came back in almost in tears saying there was very little could be done...I immediately asked that he be put to sleep.

It all happened so quickly and unexpectedly.  I had gone out to work a wee bit later than normal that morning at 9am and the last thing I did was feed him and he was his usual cheery self.  Within 90 minutes of me getting home and finding him slumped he had died.

It looks as if his heart suddenly gave way.  Possibly a small attack during the day but a massive one as we rushed him to the hospital most likely brought on by the stress he was under.  But there was nothing that could have prevented it....it was simply his time.

There's a real sense of loss just now.  He's going to be missed.  But there's the consolation that over the last five and a bit years of his life....and we still have no idea what year he was born.....he brought a lot of happiness into our lives and those of family, friends and neighbours....and I'd like to think we made him happy too.

Excuse me while I wipe away the tears.

I've asked for his ashes to come back to us and I'm going to scatter them round his favourite parts of the garden in due course.  And anytime I hear a song by Pulp or any solo releases by the band's charismatic and brilliant front-man I will always think of him.

mp3 : Pulp - Babies (EP version)
mp3 : Jarvis Cocker - Tonite
mp3 : The Cure - The Lovecats

Thanks for listening.