The old cat, as related by "Lard_baron"

My wife had a cat, old as the hills, We don't know how old as it turned up full grown. We had it 17 years. it used to sit on the window sill.

Before we owned it it liked to sit on the brick pillar our front gate hung of off. It was just the right height if you wanted to stroke it without bending down and as we lived on a corner next to shops there was a fair bit of passing strokers.

My wife and I often gave it a pet. One day the cat hopped down of the pillar followed my wife inside. And that was that really. The old owners did look for it and we gave the cat back but she just wasn't staying away and quietly slipped into our lives. When the old owners moved they didnt bother taking her and she became ours. I loved her, but she was my wifes cat, she followed her from room to room when inside. She would hop into my lap unnoticed when I got home from work and I'd stroke her. If I was tense she'd dig her claws into my lap. If i relaxed and concentrated on gentle strokes she' be fine. It was a nice kind of destressing feedback mechanism, i'd have to blank out stress and concentrate on stroking the cat, any lapse and the claws would appear, first a slight prick then firmer jabs.

When it was aged it lost the hair on its ears and couldn't groom itself as it lost the spines flexibility, my wife had to "lick it" with a wetted toothbrush or it would get dirty and its hair all tangled and matted, big lumps of loose hair hanging off of if.

Each evening my wife would sit it on her lap and groom it slowly with the wet toothbrush for 30mins or more. She'd start with the cats underside and tail, the cat always a bit tense for this, just tolerated, then roll her over and do her flanks back and head to much purring. Both of them seemed to get a great deal of pleasure out this part. It stopped wandering outside and spent most of its time indoors asleep on a window sill over the radiator. It would stiffly climb onto the low stool, then the chair, then the arm of the chair, and up onto the window sill and there lie on a cushion put there for it, dangling one of its front paws off the sill into the hot air current. Thats how I picture her in my minds eye now. On that window sill.

One night my wife dreamt she was grooming it and found a zip under its belly fur. She pulled it and saw a light inside. Staring at this light she became aware she was being drawn into the cat.

She wandered around the house as a cat, not as an old one but in the prime of life, leaping around the furniture, chasing dust motes and running out the cat flap making it bang open, then up along the fence, balancing on the narrow uprights then a leap up into the tree, walking out onto the branches to rest and look down on everyone. It was wonderful having a cats agility and balance, leaping up onto tables spinning after her tail, investigating movements in the air. She dreamt she lept up onto her favorite pillar and was being stoked by humans, she could tell what they were like by the energy their strokes gave her. A nice woman stroked her and it was a lovely warm feeling.

That morning we found the cat in its usual position on the bed at her feet. It was unable to move. It was the weekend so we both went down the vets. She went easy. After we had a short discussion with the vet she just allowed her paw to be shaved and injected. It was all over in a minute, she slipped out of or lives as quitely as she slipped in. I admired that. We wrapped her in a blanket and buried her in the Garden and planted lavender over her. I think of her still. We haven't owned a cat since.

My wife wondered if there was a connection between the dream and the passing away.