Rosie
Rosie Darling Williams
31 May 1997 - 25 August 2015
Rosie died this evening. It all happened very suddenly - I heard her cry out, and found her struggling to stand up, and then she collapsed on her side, and started crying loudly.
I called my neighbour, who has done so much to keep her alive since Christmas by helping me to give her pills, and she rushed round at once. We decided Rosie had probably had a stroke. Although it was outside surgery hours, we managed to get hold of our vet, who very kindly said he would go and open up the surgery for us, so we took Rosie there, and agreed that this was the end - as he said, she'd really made the decision for us, which was easier than the long period when Tabitha was dying and I was trying to work out when we should bring her life to a close. He also reassured us that the earlier crying didn't necessarily mean she was in pain, as it might be that she was just upset and bewildered by not being able to stand.
By now Rosie was quiet, though still unable to stand, and she died very peacefully. It was all over within an hour of the crisis beginning.
She has had an extra eight months of life - we thought she might die at Christmas, but thanks to the special pills she revived then and seemed to enjoy a fairly good quality of life for her remaining time. And I am very grateful to have had her company for those extra months, and to have had two cats as affectionate as Rosie and Tabitha to live with me for seven years.
These are two of the last photos I took of her; mysteriously, in her final weeks she adopted first my Grandma's chair and then the rocking chair. She'd never shown any interest in either of them before, but spent most of her last days firmly attached to one or the other, except when she came to sit on me. We had a nice cuddle last night, and later she came to bed with me, so I think the final day was a good one.
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