Handbags and poop bags

We are now 15 😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻🐈 

This wasn't the way Dave and I saw our life going, but that old clichè saying - it is what it is, is what it is.

A day in our life pre 9th of October 2022.

Lazy..... relaxed and calm.

I had recently retired. I was baking, making fancy dinners for us. Even had a go at candle making. Thinking of things to do to fill my day. Dave would come home, we'd eat, chat, watch a movie, in bed by 9pm. Nothing pressing.

Weekends we would go to the mangroves,  walk round a mall. Just chilling.  Our only commitments were zoom calls with friends and family.  The occasional social event with friends...

Blacky, Monty, Winnie and Squeaky had a quiet relaxed life too. Noms had arrived 1 year before the boys were taken and Monty raised her. Pepe turnt up just before the boys were taken, and Peggy had been living out the front under our car - her choice. We persuaded her to come in. We were 7. 🐈 😻 🐈‍⬛️ 😺 🐱 😸 🐈 

Then it all changed. 

We woke up on Sunday the 9th of October. I woke to Blacky and Squeaky having a layin with me at 8.45.

Blacky always slept with his head on the pillow like a little man 💙.  Squeaky was always near to him. Never close close, but always near. We met them as a 'couple', 10 years ago. Both tnr'd (we didn't know that was what the ear clip meant at the time) and they were living in our maids room. So really, when we arrived, we were moving in with them. They had never spent a single day apart and they were not kittens 10 years ago. We had brought our two dogs, Meekah and Demon with us. We would not have considered leaving them behind. 

So the dogs and cats found a happy medium. Blacky and Squeaky continued to live in the outside maids room and they were all none the wiser of each other. 

We put some furniture and 'cat' things in the room for Blacky and Squeaky, fed and watered and visited with them. 

Sadly our dogs both passed aged nearly 15. 

Squeaky and Blacky moved in with us.

Winnie and Monty turnt up within weeks of each other so our gang was 4. Blacky, Monty, Winnie and Squeaky. 3 years later Peggy, Noms and Pepè had joined us. Happily ever after we thought....

Suddenly our happy equilibrium was turnt upside down.

Every day since the 9th of October 2022 has been tough. That day I had had a medical appointment in the morning. Dave met with a friend. We went shopping in the afternoon.  We sat down at 3pm. Dave asked if I'd seen Blacky... then we realised he wasn't around. He was ALWAYS around.

2 weeks later Monty and Winnie vanished. 

All our lives changed then. On 26th October we saw the trap strategically placed against our external wall to trap our cats. No reasoning, communication, mediation or warning... nothing. They were just 'gone'. 

Since then its been tough.

Tough for the boys, tough for Squeaky and tough for us.

Saying our life was shattered is not an understatement.

Days turnt into weeks, then months.  It will be 5 months on the 9th of March since our 'normal' vanished along with the boys.

I stopped wearing my fit bit. I used to do laps of the garden to reach my target of 7k steps a day. All of a sudden I was clocking 50, 60, 70k daily. I didn't need to know that. I could feel it.

Now, we are up at 5am, unless I've not slept and gone out earlier searching. I do take a sleeping tablet now as I was lucky to get 3 or 4 hours sleep in the beginning.

We've rescued so many cats a huge chunk of our time is now spent with them. It makes me feel like I'm betraying Blacky and Winnie. Monty remembers they are not here. He is settling but missing his mates. I can tell as he is getting back into the things he did habitually. 

Monty always came in the kitchen when I was cooking. He was my cat cooking companion. Sure he was a chef previously lol. He is interested in everything I do... especially when I start chopping 'something' into small pieces. He knows 😉.   

Monty and Winnie were always together in the mornings. They'd often sleep near each other during the day. They all ate breakfast and dinner together. The younger ones would entertain me, Dave, Blacky and Squeaky in the evenings. Our routine. We were their audience. We were a family. They were each others family.

Today, ive swapped hand bags for poop bags.

We don't go out socially. We don't have the time. 

We are now 15. 🐈 😻 😻 🐈‍⬛️ 😺 🐱 😸 🐈 😻 🐈 😻 😺 🐱 😸 🐈 

We hope to find homes for 6 who are currently with us. Which will bring us down to 9, plus winnie and blacky. So we will be 11. 🐈 😻 🐈‍⬛️ 😺 🐱 😸 🐈 😻 😺 🐱 😸 

I'd give anything for this not to have happened to the boys and selfishly us too. 

Dave and I whizz around, sometimes passing each other on the way in and out. Checking out lookalikes, learning of new areas to investigate, vet appointments, meetings, social media updates, searching. Always searching.

We were riding atop a high crested wave when we found Monty. That wave has now crashed and dumped us back to reality. We have 2 more to find. We still have Blacky and Winnie to bring home. We still have work to do.

We will not give up.