The Not So Long Goodbye

When we moved into this house, we always new we wanted a pet to love and to feel a part of our home. A cat it would have to be. And it was magical when, only once we were beginning to worry we would never find the one, he turned up on our doorstep in all his bewitching blackness. Eyes so golden. Limbs long and limber. These perfect qualities were even more perfectly defined due to his completely rugged and cocky personality. He was street, yet clumsy; cheeky but loving, and sent to us when we needed him.
We don’t have much luck generally, Gavin and I; we’ve been through a lot to get where we are, and so it almost didn’t seem real that we could be blessed with Flynn, our lil’ man.
Saturday morning cuddles were our favourite time; I’d go downstairs and he’d be there as usual, perched on next doors back gate waiting to be let in. He’d eat his breakfast while I’d run back upstairs and hide with Gav under the bedcovers. After a few minutes we’d hear him charge up the stairs and patter into the room then pounce on the bed and clamber over us until we’d throw the covers off and smother him in cuddles and kisses. He was so loved.

That lasted five months. Last Tuesday morning, his usual clockwork-self didn’t show up for breakfast. Gavin had immediate doubts, but I didn’t want to assume over just one morning. But the days went by and tears were increasingly shed. Until our doubts were confirmed by a woman who lived on the street behind ours. On Monday night, he was hit by a car, some people saw the commotion, and he was picked up by the council the next morning. And that was it. Over.
What hit me the most about the woman’s story was her description of Flynn. Yes, she mentioned his black fur, the colour of his collar, but one word she emphasised more than most. ‘Long’. And he was just that, a long cat. We used to change the words in the song ‘Love Shack’ to ‘Long Cat’. Watch him stretch out across the floor or flop his body across both our laps to relax.
I still look for him, open the door and tell him I love him. Perhaps he served his time with us. Sent to remind us that we are infact people who can have luck. To love us as much as we loved him. But that maybe we have to concentrate on each other now.