I have sad news Mr Ringo passed away on the 4th July, he was 19 years old and had lived his best life with my husband Tony and me. He had lived with a few health issues that were managed with medication but the time had come when he had simply had enough and we didn’t want him to suffer. Heartbreaking as it was and still is, you as responsible owners have to think of the cat and their quality of life. He was always such a lion, sleeping in the sun but keeping one eye on his territory and help any other cat that walked his way…….
Apart from his last 6 months he was always an active and adventurous cat, he loved going outside and would never had been a cat that was happy indoors. His favourite hobby included visiting the neighbours (lots of them, rather a lot!), he once stole a tuna steak from our next door neighbour and spent the night at another neighbours, sleeping on their son’s bed! I also often saw my close neighbours leave for the day to then notice Ringo in their bedroom window!
While cat sitting for my neighbours I would often find him sat on their sofa or eating their cats food, not sure who was more surprised Ringo or me!
19 years ago when I worked at a feline only vets a lady called and said she had a 20 week old ginger kitten that needed to find a home because he had been returned, due to him being too naughty!
My husband had always said he would like a ginger kitten and so home he came with us. We called him Ringo because he had ring markings on his side which unfortunately looked like a target! They fortunately disappeared as he got bigger 🙂
We had him neutered as soon as we could and as I worked at his vets,I was lucky to be present. He was very fortunate in having many amazing vets looking after him in the same practice for 19 years and they knew him well, this was just as well as he could be aggressive towards them when he was young but he mellowed in his later years.
Ringo lived with our two other older cats and they tolerated him, I’m not sure I would ever have a kitten with older cats again and I often had to keep him away from them in their later years. When they later passed away we decided to keep him as an only cat.
Over his life time he brought mice back but fortunately he wasn’t good at catching birds and in true lion style he was happy for someone else to provide the food while he protected his territory.
Both my husband and me are heartbroken and miss him very much but take comfort that he had such a good life and didn’t suffer at the end. We are very touched by the kind messages, cards and even donations remembering him, some from people I hardly know or know him from social media. We feel lucky to have had him in our lives for 19 years…………
We will of course open our home to another cat or cats in the future, when the time feels right.
Mr Ringo you were a legend! Meowsers!!!
Love and Purrs Rachel xxx
