Unfortunately I don’t have much of a story for Fae. Her life was cut very short, she died on July 7th 2001 - 12 days before the first anniversary of Gem’s death.
Fae was a very lively girl, always getting up to mischief either on her own, or with help. She was always bold and brave, nothing really scared her. One of her favourite games was playing with a balloon, even when they popped at the end of her sharp claws... she just found another one to play with.
It was Fae’s adventurous nature that lead to her untimely death. She wandered a little too far from the safety of home, and lost her life to a passing car.
Saturday July 7th 2001. Someone knocked at the door. I opened it to find three children on bikes. They handed me a scrap of paper, one of the pieces of paper I had written my contact details on and put in all the cats’ ID tags on their collars. When I asked where they got it, they said it was from a dead cat that was in their garden. "What colour cat?" I asked. The older child said it was a little brown cat. I didn’t even know Fae wasn’t here.
The children had found her body on the road and taken her home with the intention of burying her. Their mother told them to see if she had a collar, so the owner could be told. When they found the ID tag, they came to get me. Some people condemn me for making my cats wear collars, but without them, I would never have known what had happened to Fae, or Bonnie.
I walked to their house and collected Fae. She had been carefully placed in a box by the children. When I got her back here, I let the other cats see her body so they could say goodbye. Howie climbed into the box with her. He cuddled up to her lifeless body and started washing her, like he was trying to wake her up. I let them have a few moments together before taking Fae to the vet to arrange a cremation.
