In memory of Ollie

Ollie was run over in July 26. She was born in late 2022 as the runt of the litter on a farm, and so the elderly woman who lived there decided to take her indoors & look after her. Initially she kept her in a small crate for her and protection (approx 12x18" x12"), but as time went on, she grew into a small cat who was a bit snotty but otherwise desperate to get out & roam. The lady would let her out once a day to use the litter box & have wet food. Then she or her visitors would catch & put her nack in the crate. In June 24, she finally told us (her visiting nurses) that she couldn't manage to get her in & out of the box any more (after we'd been urging her to let her roam free now that she's grown healthy), and so I took her home with me. I clipped her claws, got her vaccinations, head xray to make sure the snot wasn't caused by any deformity, a swab for the right antibiotics, then 3 more courses of antibiotics before she stopped sneezing snot everywhere! She was a pampered indoor princess, loved treats (the one word she'd respond to was biscuits), and when we moved to the countryside in Nov 25, she ran outside after only a week & decided that she had to be an outside cat now. She enjoyed it for 8 months before it was her undoing & she was run down in the early morning hours of July 7th. A local farmer & cat lover found her & recognised her as belonging to the newcomer in the village & came to my door at 7am. It's been a month as I'm writing this, and I'm in tears. She was such a happy cat & she knew that we loved her. A few days after, her sisters started acting odd, as though they noticed that she wasn't around any more & started staying out all night searching. It broke my heart

by Katie Nield