Tumness died

He was fine for ages and then last week he just stopped moving. He wasn't in pain, just not moving. I brought him water and food until he stated to refuse food. I stroked his head and told him how much I loved him. We sat in front of the fire on his last night and gave him water and wrapped him in his favourite blanket. He died in the morning about 11.30. Both of the children saw him die. He just meowed and then stopped breathing.
We wrapped him up in a cloth. I placed a necklace around his neck so that if his bones were found in the future people would know he was not just any cat but one who was loved. We placed him in a box. The children made good-bye cards to place in the box alongside all the flowers we could collect from the garden. We sealed the box and covered it with stars and moons. I wrote his name and dates and 'My heart has joined the thousand for my friend stopped running today
Solomon and I took him up to the top of May Hill and he sat with my mum whilst I dug a hole. We buried Tumness in a place where the bracken grows and the wind howls; it was where he was born.
I walked away from him and came back to a home without him. We have our one cat one - Shamouse - who has been eating Sheba non-stop since.
I miss him. He was my friend for eleven years. I keep seeing his shadow outside of the door, waiting to be let in but I am surprised how little we are haunted by him; only his memory. It was time for him to go.
Goodbye Tumness.

Proud mum moment

Ok...I'm proud of him!
Osiris is 'Gifted and Talented' in maths.
For those of you who don't know what that is; it's a category of children who are at the very top end of their age group and who have special help and attention because of it.
You always think your child is clever but it's nice to have it confirmed by the school.
~beam~

Not well

I've hauled my carcass out of the bed to down some Lemsip (It's so foul - it's piss smell backwards) and check my blog and facebook. I've got the flu. UGH! The worst is over now but there was a point where I was lying in bed with a really high temperature and hallucinating that I was giving birth to a baby I didn't know I was pregnant with!
I caught it off many people who I have been in contact with - all mums who have HAD to keep going because there is nobody to look after the kids if they didn't. I still had to do some kid stuff but I complained and moaned and was generally unwell at Rob until I got to have 12 hours in bed (Solomon's, then mine, then his again, then mine, then Osiris'....it goes on, not one place for more than an hour...) and broke the fever or at least dulled it down with drugs.
Mr. Tumness is still with us. He's not too bad, not unhappy. I have made a decision that when he looks like he's in pain we will call a vet out to do a home visit rather than put him through the trauma of going back into the cat cage of badness. I love that cat and I want him to go without pain and purring in my arms....sniff....
Samhian is just next week and we are having a party to warm our new house. If you are reading this and you have not received an invite and you would like one just comment that you'd like to come and I'll send you the details. I really love this time of year but this time I have a new reason to be excited; it's only a few months until the next growing season and I'm really excited about the new types of squash I have bought for next year.
It's what it's all about isn't it...birth, growth, fruits and decay...
Happy Samhian!

Everybody loves boobies!

Very sad news

This is Mr. Tumness. He is my very lovely cat who I have had for 11 years. Today we went to vet with him and discovered that he has not got very long to live. He has an irregular heartbeat and his tummy has swollen up with fluid. The vet said he has about a month to live.
We had the option of taking him to an animal hospital to have to it investigated further but it would involve a whole day of tests and giving him a general anesthetic. His heart is so week that he probably wouldn't get through it and he was so scared just going to the vets that he weed all over the cat carrier. I just don't think I could put him though that for what could be only a few months more of life.
I'm feeling very sad and I'm wondering if I have made the right choice.
I am going to make his last bit of life really nice. He's going to have tuna and cuddles and love...as much as I can give him. Then I know I will have done the best for him.
I can feel I am going to cry a lot of tears for the next few weeks.
Neil Gaimen said "When you fall in love with a kitten, one day you will bury an old cat"

A ban on free drinks to women

When I first saw this headline I was a little confused. Did it mean that bars were giving free drinks to their women customers and not to their male ones or did it mean they were not allowed to give free drinks to women but they were to men?
It's the former.
This came on the same week that a friend of mine showed me a postcard of a young girl about to be assaulted by a young man which said "Do you know where your children are tonight?". It was warning parents about letting their daughters out presumably because if they did go out they would be plied with free drinks by a bar which then pimped her unconscious body.
One of my first reactions to the 'free drinks for women' thing was to say "Where is this place? Let me go there and get really drunk for free and it would be funny because I'm not young or pretty or likely to let some man fondle in my pants."
The second reaction was a feeling that a 'Free drinks for women' does have very sinister overtones. It sounds like the bars, the drunk men and the courts are all in this together. Drunk women are ok to rape because it is their fault they are drunk. Come to our bar where there are lots of drunk women you can rape...or at least persuade into bed...
Third thought....All people are individuals who can take care or themselves, or not, who will rape, or not, who will drink to much whether it's free, or not and should it be down to government legislation to ban free drinks to anyone? Also....if they are concerned about women's safty then the whole 'Men - don't rape women' campian is long overdue.
In this article it also says

The government intervention represents a belated acknowledgment that hopes that Britain would adopt a civilised “cafe culture” with the introduction of 24-hour drinking have failed.

which is laughable because unless you give the British people the same work hours and pay as people who have the 'cafe culture' then at the weekend tired underpayed unervaluesd pissed off people who have been working at a job they hate all week will go and get shit faced at the weekend.
Anyway the bill has not gone through yet so if anyone who knows where I can get a free drink just because there is a possibilty that I might get my tits out please let me know where it is!
(Getting my tits out is something I do quite a lot as I'm breastfeeding...)

I'm in!

Yes...Greetings from my new house! We spent our first night here last night and the kids thought it was great fun. Osiris was a bit worried about missing his old house but he said that he felt at home. I agree. It seems that we were meant to be here.
It's a bit of a weird house; idiosyncratic, like the residents!
We are right by a stream that flooded last year but apparently the council dump sand bags at the top of the road when it rains.
We are two houses down from the railway line that runs parallel to our garden, it's a bit loud but already I hardly notice it and I still haven't got rid of the urge to run into the garden and wave at the train. Osiris loves waving at the train. He said "One day there will be a sad man sitting on the train and looking out of the window and he will look down and see a happy little boy waving to him and it will make him happy"
My son; full of love for the whole world!
We still have four days of packing and moving and cleaning to do. The cats are not in yet and that makes me feel very sad. I think I should go and get them today...
Anyway...
I'm IN!!!!