{"id":76,"date":"2008-07-17T15:41:31","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T14:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simondunn.me.uk\/?p=76"},"modified":"2009-10-23T16:27:08","modified_gmt":"2009-10-23T15:27:08","slug":"cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/?p=76","title":{"rendered":"Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>My cat died. There\u2019s no nicer way of saying that without it turning into a Monty Python sketch. More precisely, I had him killed. So maybe I did say it the nice way after all.<\/p>\n<p>Having him put to sleep was probably the most mature and adult thing I\u2019ve ever had to do. That\u2019s not to say I didn\u2019t regress at great speed when I found him in the garden, having suffered a stroke, unable to move, blind, and mewing the most heart-wrenching sound I have ever heard. I wanted my Mum to tell my what to do, I panicked and asked Arthur to get better, prompted him repeatedly to tell me what was wrong, then finally scooped him up in my arms and rushed him to a vet.<\/p>\n<p>But he managed to have the final say; in spite of being blind and barely able to move, when the vet moved him to give the injection, he scratched her. She was properly hurt. Good.<\/p>\n<p>He was 18, and I had become more and more depressed this last year knowing he wouldn\u2019t be around for much longer, but it\u2019s incredibly upsetting. I didn\u2019t realise how often I would spend time with him during an average day, and every time I get up to make coffee now, it hurts that he\u2019s not there to stroke for a minute or two, or bugging me loudly for some milk, or starting an argument with me about the fullness of his belly.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s very easy to anthropomorphise animals, and everyone thinks their cat or dog is more human than pet \u2013 but it\u2019s because of this that it pangs so much when they are gone. Arthur gave me cuddles when I was sad (he was cold), and listened to me moaning (he sat there), and greeted me when I came home (his bowl was empty), and now I miss my little purring telephone very much. Usually when I feel like this, I go and find the cat for a hug. It\u2019s not fair.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My cat died. There\u2019s no nicer way of saying that without it turning into a Monty Python sketch. More precisely, I had him killed. So maybe I did say it the nice way after all. Having him put to sleep was probably the most mature and adult thing I\u2019ve ever had to do. That\u2019s not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whingegasm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simondunn.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}