Louis the Great

It was a cold evening in early April 2007. We were living in town and watching TV, when we heard the loudest MEOW! We thought it was the neighbour’s cat that had been locked out and didn’t think much of it, but when it continued, Damian when out to check. He returned very quickly “it’s the fluffiest kitten you’ve ever seen!” he said. Well that was a surprise, such a big voice for such a tiny thing, 600g of tiny fluff as we later found out.

I went out with some food and he soon came within
reach. I grabbed him and stuffed him inside my jumper. We took him to the garage as we were sure the owners would soon come looking for him and we didn’t want to unnecessarily stress our other two cats. Inside the garage I opened my jumper and found him sucking on my shirt, he was that small. We fed him and he made sure we felt very much thanked for giving him a warm meal. He would eat, then come to see us with the loudest purrs, then eat some more, then back for cuddles. When he finished the food he tried to eat the plate, so we gave him more food.

Over the following days we started searching for the owners but nobody claimed the tiny fluff ball…well there’s only one thing you can do when a cutie like that wonders into your life… KEEP IT. So we did. Our two middle aged cats, Migloo and Rusty were less than impressed by our decision but little Louis’s cheerful disposition soon won them over.

Over the following weeks, we understood the importance of nappies, though of course they don’t come in cat size, so we did without. As we waited for him to be old enough for desexing, we kept him in the house and took him on little explorations of the backyard on a leash. Quite funny, really. But it was clear that this was a free spirit…so as soon as we could let him, we set him free and started fretting every night, eagerly awaiting his return. A keen rodent hunter and an incredibly agile climber. Twice he got home in a bad state, once with a collapsed lung, which required open chest surgery to fix, and once with a heart issue, probably caused by a bee sting. Both times he was not expected to make it, but he did. Our fluffy purr champion would pull through the worst and shine again. 

When we moved to the country, he couldn’t believe his luck, unlimited rabbit and rat supply, all the space he could dream of and almost no cars! He would spend the days busily patrolling his territory or just curled up under a bush waiting to spring into action at dusk. But every night he would come home to a juicy meal and LOTS of cuddles!

Last Thursday night he didn’t make it home. I know Louis, he’s always come home if he needed help so I knew that if he wasn’t back it was because he couldn’t come. But cats are cats and you always hope they may have just gone on an adventure… he hadn’t. We found him today. His lifeless fluffy body just next to the driveway. He was coming home. We walked past there so many times in the past few days, calling him, looking for him, but we didn’see him and he couldn’t respond. Vale gorgeous boy, we are so sad and angry we lost you so soon, but feel totally privileged you chose us, on that cold night six years ago.

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