My beautiful cat Jess sadly passed away last year aged 16 years. We got him when he was about 4 months old. Our next door neighbour got him for her son who was 2 at the time. But sadly, he kept trying to pick Jess up by his tail and it wasn't fair on the cat so we took him on. He was the nicest cat I'd ever known, and was my first cat too. So playful yet so cuddly and lazy. Jess would go out on a night and sometimes he'd be gone for days at a time, but we weren't concerned because we always knew where he was.
At the time, we lived in a small close with just 16 houses in it. If Jess wasn't on my bed fast asleep he was in one of our neighbours houses being fed our fussed. Even the neighbours who didn't have their own pets got cat food in for him and had cat bowls for him. He never did his toilet business in the tray and would always go out to do that luckily.
When we moved last year we decided to leave Jess there with our neighbours who agreed to help look after him. We were moving from a quite close to a main road and it wasn't fair on him. I was gutted but knew it was the right thing to do. We had regular updates from neighbours and lots of pictures of him. He was the chunkiest cat you'd ever met too. Loved his food.
One morning my neighbour found him struggling to breathe. They took him straight to the vets who kept him in and put him straight on oxygen and did tests. Sadly, Jess had a tumor, and the best thing for him was to put him to sleep. With his age and the size and location of the tumor, operating wasn't really an option.
Jess died before the vets put him to sleep
I still miss him so much and get upset when I think of him. He looked very much like my cat now, Davey, so I am constantly reminded of him and always feel part of him is with me through Davey; they are so alike.
We were lucky to have had Jess for so long and it's because of him that I now have 2 cats of my own and that cats are my favourite pets!
When you have a minute look up and give Jess a wave :-) I know he'd love that. Bless him. Wherever you are baby boy I still love you very much and always think about you! Mwah xxxx
