It was eleven and a half years ago that I had to pop into town during my lunch break. P asked for a lift.
On the way back to work P asked me if I wanted a cat. I said not really, I already had two and was living with my Mum at the time. He said that he was moving in with his girlfriend who was allergic to cats, so he really needed to find the cat a home, but was worried that if he took her to a shelter no one would give her a home as she wasn't very friendly, so could I take her for a few weeks while he found a home for her?
Much to my surprise, my Mum agreed that we could take her, just for a few weeks though......
So enter Tinker. Somehow P's girlfriend managed to drive all the way from London with Tinker in her car - allergic? Yeah, right!!! Tinker was absolutely obese, and "wasn't very friendly" was something of an understatement. She spent the first 3 weeks with us hiding somewhere on a shelf in the workshop, only coming down to eat when the coast was clear.
After three weeks it was my Mum's 50th birthday, we had a big party and a lot of people over to stay, both of us lost our beds to elderly relatives and had to sleep on the workshop floor for the night. That was the first time we got to see Tinker properly as at 3am she started bouncing off the walls using me as a trampoline
After that day she started to show her face more often, and it became obvious that she was totally unhandled and very handy with her teeth and claws. We also started to find out a bit more about her from P and his friends - like how she did a poo in P's motorbike helmet and peed in his sports bag (that will teach him to clean litter trays regularly!). We also found out that P was not her first owner, and that she was at least 9 years old, maybe older. Poor Tinker had got to that age and never really been anyones much loveed pet.
Needless to say P had never intended to find her a permenant home, Tinker got on well with our other cats and although nothing was ever said it became clear she was staying. P split up with his girlfriend, but knew better than to ask for his cat back. Time went on and the unhandled wild cat turned into a friendly huggable cat
for some reason the wild ones always do take to me eventually.
So fast forward a good few years, Tinker came with me when I moved away from my Mum and in with Ed.
Last year she started to poo in various places around the house, the vets tested her for everything they could think of, and declared she was in amazing condition for her age. So it was put down to senility and we became adept at cleaning carpets. However over the last couple of weeks it went from being one accident a month to one most days. We had to resort to shutting her in the kitchen as it is the only room without a carpet. She clearly didn't know what she was doing. She also had an accident in her bed. I knew when we took her to the vets this morning that the chances were that we would come home without her. I know she was a good age, being over 20 (no real idea of her exact age). But that doesn't stop my heart from breaking.
RIP Tinker
