Today
(25th) marks 1 year since we lost our Super Nuggy, it’s rare that we get
an opportunity to talk about much else than Ryan, which is totally
understandable of course, but Nugget brought so much to our family in
such a short time that it’s only fair we make a mention of him.
For those who don’t know the story,
here’s the basics. Having come over early in August 2009, I then managed
to get Swine Flu inside 2 weeks of my arrival. On the weekend of 22/23
the Beckham circus was in town and the weather was to be honest,
torrential and unrelenting. I spent most of the weekend lying in bed,
alternately sweating & shivering and sleeping as much as possible.
Jessica ran out for some medication at about 8pm and discovered a little
kitten shivering right by our entrance.
Over the weekend this little kitten
made himself at home, familiar with a litter basket, comfortable with
all of us and not causing too much hassle with the other 2 cats.
Nevertheless once I’d recovered I was clear that we couldn’t keep him.
We took him to the nearby vets, hoping
he’d be chipped, but he wasn’t. Our posters letting people know we’d
found him were removed so it was clear that finding his owners was going
to be hard. At the vets we found he’d got ear mites, also needed to be
“fixed” (which was a shame cos even the vet commented that he was a “big
lad”!) so the choice was to leave him there, or shell out the $$$ to
get the work done. On that basis, I’d made the choice to accept we’d be
keeping him.
We kept him ! YAY ! Jessica wins that
argument...... she wanted to call him Timmy....as in Timmy Howard,
Everton’s tourettes stricken keeper. She thought this was funny. I
disagreed. After a facebook naming battle, my suggestion was supported,
we now had Nugget!
As Nugget grew he managed to encourage
Poof cat to come out and play and be a lot more sociable, whereas
before Poof spent all day under the bed, now he had someone to play
with, though he had to learn fast that now we had a Ninja ambusher
liable to pound on him anytime, anywhere, this in effect gave us another
cat as Poof is now far more settled and relaxed in company than ever
before.
We really had got lucky with Nugget,
he managed to make us laugh so many times and we were looking forward to
seeing him with Ryan, sadly that wasn’t to be. His death was such a
shock to us all, I’m glad I was right there though and he wasn’t alone, I
wish I could have done something, but it was clear that nothing would
work. As I waited for Jessica to come home so we could rush him to the
vets in a vain attempt to save him I’ve never felt so helpless and
upset.
The last time Jessica saw him alive,
he was chasing Poof round the apartment, that’s a nice image and sums up
his impact here. 24 hours later Poof was running round and stopping to
look back for Nugget ambushing him, that was really sad. It made up my
mind that the next day we’d go looking for a kitten at the rescue and
that led to the arrival of Jake the thug. So in a way I feel Nuggy
managed to give Poof an improved life and then provide a good home for
Jake as well.
So, some memories of him, well the
obvious one being his love of boxes, though one time I had to rescue him
as he’d fallen into a large collection that had housed Ryan’s crib and
stroller. Next up is the sink... Nuggy loved to jump onto the sink when
you were there, demanding the tap be turned on so he could drink. He
had a funny chattering noise when he saw the birds feeding on our
balcony, they excited him no end.
His wars with Poof are too many to
list, but the one I recall was Poof lying in wait and Nugget literally
walking through/over him without a pause and continuing on his way,
leaving Poof inverted with a feeling of “what the hell just happened?”
He loved the laser pointer, but wouldn’t share it, when Jet joined in,
Nuggy would sit and sulk! Very funny to watch. Finally is the bed
& “doughnut”, AKA Jessica’s sleep pillow, Nugget loved to sleep
curled up in it, as well as diving under the covers. Many a time we’d
wonder where he was and find a Nugget shape sleeping peacefully under
everything on the bed.
We love all of our cats and we’re glad
that we have them. We’re lucky to have been the ones to have found
Nugget and we’ll never forget him.
Big hugs Nuggy!
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