A sad day today in the Connolly house – Gizmo was put down after the vet discovered that her eating problems were caused by a massive tumour in her mouth – most of her tongue was swollen and ulcerated. We’d noticed that she wasn’t her usual self over Christmas so I brought her down to the vet for a checkup on Friday. They recommended a biopsy this morning to determine how bad it was and to see whether it was treatable, so this morning I brought her to the Newbury vets surgery. Not long after, I got the phone call to say that the tumour was non-operable and that it would be the best thing to let her go to sleep without waking up.

Luke was very, very upset when he heard she was gone. Despite her reign of terror over other cats in the house, Gizzy was great with the kids. She was the only one who’d let herself be petted by very young babies, she was the only cat who’d sleep in the boys rooms and she always would show her face for whatever reason. She also taught the boys how to treat animals – no slapping – you might get slapped (or pawed) back, no scaring – you’re bigger than them, but there’s always someone bigger -and just be nice. Or else! Her reign of fear as the ‘naughty tortie’ is now over, but we all remember her presence.

Just last night, I tried to bring her up to our bedroom to sleep, but she ran off back downstairs. Two hours later she was back, watching us as we slept from the end of the bed. This morning, she was gone, back downstairs where she felt safe. I managed a goodbye and good luck when I left her at the vet, but I knew it wasn’t good. If I’d known how things would have panned out, I would have given her a bigger cuddle when I could have. When I collected her, she was still warm so it didn’t seem real. I took her collar off, kissed her for the last time, then dug a 2 foot deep hole.

She’ll be with us for a long time now, watching from the shrubbery.