My Sweet Bonnie

Bonnie was found wandering the streets, heavily pregnant, in June ‘98. It appeared that she had been dumped because she was pregnant. She was taken to a local cattery to await a foster home where she could have her kittens in safety, before being spayed and rehomed.

I was the lucky fosterer who got the call about her. It was arranged that my husband would collect Bonnie after he finished work for the day. But, a few hours later I received another call, this time telling me not to collect her until the next day because she was in labour.

I called at about 8pm that evening to see how she was. Bonnie had delivered three beautiful kittens (black girl, tabby and white boy, blue boy), but there had been a complication. The first kitten, the blue male, had got stuck on his way out. Luckily neither mother nor babies were hurt because help was close at hand, though the story would have been totally different if Bonnie had not been found earlier that day.

The next afternoon my husband called in at the cattery to collect Bonnie and her kittens. As he walked in the door with them he complained that he was going to have non stop earache for the next few months because the kittens were so beautiful. I smiled and quietly said that I liked the mother cat.

Bonnie was very protective of her kittens. She would growl at anyone who went near them, but was never aggressive in any way. She did spend the next couple of weeks moving them from place to place so no one could find them though.

About three weeks after Bonnie arrived she developed very bad diarrhoea. Despite trying various treatments, both natural and conventional medicine, nothing helped. By this time I was allowing Bonnie to explore the house, I hate having to keep cats confined. I noticed that when she was ‘free’ she had no diarrhoea, but when she was confined to the foster room she had the worst diarrhoea I had ever seen. My mind started ticking over - what would I do if I was constantly shut in one room? I would be depressed and angry. I would protest in whatever way I could. As soon as I realised this, I moved Bonnie and her kittens out of the foster room and gave them full run of the house. There was no more diarrhoea from that moment on.

By the time the kittens had found new homes, Bonnie had happily settled into the household routine. She ate with the residents (cats), slept on my bed, and came and went as she pleased. It seemed like a shame to send her on to a new home, but my husband strongly felt that four cats was enough.

The weeks passed but no one showed an interest in adopting Bonnie. She had a strange way of showing affection, people didn’t like it. Bonnie would stand on her back legs and use your leg as a scratching post. I always thought it was cute, but it put other people off.

One day my husband annoyed me. It was something really petty, but annoying nonetheless. He went to an air show with two friends, this is not what annoyed me though. What annoyed me was that he took them without even bothering to ask if I wanted to go. I wouldn’t have gone, but that wasn’t the point. As the day went on I grew more and more annoyed. Then I decided that I too could do something without asking him first. So, I called the lady in charge of cat rehoming and told her that I was keeping Bonnie.

When my husband got home I think he had a sudden attack of conscience because he suddenly said to me, ‘Why don’t you keep Bonnie?’ At which point I informed him that I had officially adopted her already.

For the first few ‘official’ months Bonnie stayed close to home. She spent a lot of time playing with the other two girls, Gypsy and Kitty-Kat, then she started wandering. At first she would go on hunting trips with Jasper, then she started going off on her own - often for days at a time. So many times I reported her missing after not seeing her for two days, only for her to walk in the door after I had made all the calls, so I made myself a rule not to report her missing until she had been gone for four days. This worked for a while, until she was missing for a week. I went through the usual routine of calling all the vets and shelters, my last call was to Cats Protection. I had just finished giving Bonnie’s details when I turned around to see her standing in front of me. She was very hungry so I fed her. While she ate I checked her for injuries. To my alarm she was hurt - a large graze on her shoulder and torn claws. Her breathing was very shallow and fast. In a panic I rushed her to the vet. The vet was not particularly worried, but kept her in over night just in case. Luckily none of the injuries were serious and Bonnie was allowed home the next day.

Over the months that followed, Bonnie went missing several times. I stuck to my four day rule so only two episodes were reported. One time she was gone for a week, another nine days. Luckily no injuries after either.

On April 7th 2000 Bonnie went missing again, and I stuck to my four day rule again. On day seven, April 14th, Bonnie came home again. She was dehydrated, very thirsty and her mouth was bleeding slightly. I have since found out that she was displaying classic symptoms of poisoning, if only I knew sooner... I called the vet and described her symptoms. The vet said it was not an emergency, she told me to take her into the surgery the next morning... and this is what I planned to do. So, next morning I got up early to take Bonnie to the vet... but she was not here. Somehow she had got out and gone on another wander, her last wander.

The next afternoon I got a call from a man who lives nearby, he had found a cat in his garden and got my number from the ID tag on her collar. I knew she was sick so I expected him to say that he had taken her to the vet... but that was not the case. Bonnie was dead. I took the man’s address and went to collect Bonnie.

The next day she was buried next to the canal - it was her favourite hunting place. I found a nice, quiet spot that is sheltered by a huge willow tree and settled Bonnie into her final resting place. Poppy seeds were scattered on her grave, her favourite treats placed in with her... just in case she wanted them.