Introducing Ginger Thom

On the 11th Nov 2016 we picked up our ginger kitten from a work collegue whose partner found 2 dumped kittens in a box outside his work.  They were approximately 2 weeks old and were hand reared by this lovely couple.  We were privileged to take little ginger Thom.

 Thom and Millie

Little Thom kitten

 The day we brought him home

 Settling in on the sofa

 Getting close to Chloe

Shilo was fascinated by Thom

Trying to get close to Jake

 Playing with Hogan's tail

With the dead baby bunny Jake brought home for Thom.

Arnie (2002 - 3 Nov 2016)

Arnie disappeared on the 3rd Nov 2016.  It was not unusual for him to be away from home overnight or even once 2 weeks but this time it didn't feel right.  We called him that night expecting him to return during the night meowing as he did to announce he was home.  Sadly that did not happen so next day after I got home, I took the dogs for a walk up the drive.  When I spotted Poppy and then Shilo looking in a drain under the neighbour's drive, I thought I had better investgate.  It was Arnie.  He was half in the drain and definitely dead.  I picked him up and carried him home so we could say goodbye properly and bury him with the others.

This is the last photo I have of Arnie sitting on my legs while I was sewing the binding on my niece's quilt.  He was a real character cat and a mean hunter.  He lived a good full life with us after we rescued him and his brother Forrest from a forest out of Dargaville where they had been dumped.  He was 14.5 years old and outlived his brother by 7 years.

 Arnie was really confident with the dogs and was often found close to one of them.  In this case it is Shilo who really wasn't so sure.

 A group of tabbies - Arnie back left with Bruno and in front Forrest.  They are altogether again.

 Always in the centre of things.

With Jake.

Hanging out with Hogan.

We were due to get a ginger kitten the week after Arnie left us.  I was so looking forward to Arnie training the new one but sadly he left before that happened.

RIP Arnie 

Life is much quieter without you.

Brocketsway Shilo Rose (5 Nov 2006 to 8 Feb 2017)

Little Miss Shilo

Shilo left us after dinner on Tuesday 7th Feb 2017. Originally I started this blog to record her puppy adventures.  At the time I was a blog novice and realised this was public and deleted all of that history. I had saved it on my computer but subsequently lost the hard drive. Now I wish I had those memories.

Shilo was the most gorgeous puppy.  She was the youngest we had experienced at 7 weeks old and when she arrived was smaller than the cats.

She was very adventurous and probably was not trusted alone on our property for longer than any of the others.  She was an independent spirit from the beginning but was loyal to her big brother Rocky and sister Casey.  Casey played with her from start but Rocky wouldn't even look at her.

She grew into a beautiful girl and was lots of fun.  She loved doing agility and did it with lots of noise and passion.

Shilo was still competing at agility the weekend before she showed signs of being really sick.  She was only just 10 years, 3 months old and that really was too young to leave us.  We miss her so much.