Getting through the days

  After our half-Persian cat, Angel, had to be put to sleep when he became ill suddenly, David and I were bereft.  We agreed that we wanted to get a kitten as soon as possible.  We'd been very taken with Angel's placid personality, a characteristic of the Persian, and we decided that we'd like another Persian. After some searching, we found a breeder in Somerset who had two kittens for sale - a tom and a queen, and we were originally attracted to the tom - however, someone else saw the kittens before we did and they chose the boy.  Accordingly, we went off to Somerset to view the little queen with her family. David picked her up and she looked up at him - and from then on she was Daddy's Cat. Purebred cats are registered with an unique name, the first part of which indicates the breeder.  Mysti was originally called Callymicanti Bootylicious- however, the thought of the vet calling for Bootylicious Howell at her next visit persuaded me that the name had to be ch...

Well, that's 2020 over with and I think it's fair to say that it wasn't the best I've ever had. Her Majesty the Queen once famously had an "annus horribilis"  To quote Nev from the BBC programme The Call Centre, the past twelve months have been an "annus anus"  - I've had an arsehole of a year!    From the diagnosis of the first cancer in November, we staggered from shock to shock - we'd come to terms with one piece of bad news only to be hit with another blow.   This time I want to write a bit about David's illness and some of the dramas that resulted.  Perhaps I should warn people of a nervous disposition to look away now! In the week before Christmas, a colonoscopy revealed that David's large intestine was very close to becoming blocked.  David went into hospital for surgery on December 23.  He came through the four-hour operation well, and was discharged at the end of the week.  The following day we were back at the hospital at th...