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Charlie is an absolute sweetheart and we're missing him
terribly. He's affectionate and chatty, actually quite emotionally needy and sensitive at times. We miss him most in the evening as every hour or so he would appear in the lounge doorway and meow hello, come in for a cuddle and fuss and then go out again. He loves 'padding' on our fluffy cushions and goes off into another world!
He would come in and out during the day - I work from home - and would sit and meow at me until I cuddled him. He also liked to walk on the keyboard! He loves lying on the floor and having his tummy stroked.
He came to us a 3 month old kitten rescued from Stewartby Brickworks, along with Emma who's 3 months older and she did a great job of mothering him in the early days. We'd just lost our 19 year old cat and he and Emma filled that cat-shaped gap in our lives very well. Now he likes to jump on her head!
He's slim but deceptively solidly built. When running outside, he hunkers down on his haunches like big cats do when they are hunting. We think he may have a bit of Siamese or similar in his heritage. He loves catching voles and did catch a bat one night. He kindly brought it up into the lounge and let go, whereupon it flew around the ceiling for a while before we were able to catch it and put it out.
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He has a skin condition around mouth and chin which may be quite noticeable by now. He's had some adventures in his life. When under a year old he got stuck up a massive tree and my husband had to go up and get him. We only knew he was there as when we went to call him in at nightime we could hear him call back from the other side of the field.
Good job it was a quiet night and he's vocal - and my husband is such a hero he'll go 30ft+ up a tree in the dark! Then he had a blocked bladder last year and we nearly lost him. The skin condition around his mouth has defeated the vets so we'd been treating him homeopathically, which seemed to keep it under control. He also suffers from excess wax and infections in his ears (possibly due to skin condition) - absolutely hates the eardrops but enjoys the biscuit rewards for being a good boy. He always forgives us for all the pill popping and eardrops and is in general a very upbeat and cheerful character although he would have the odd day when he was a bit quiet.
The night he disappeared was no different to any other. We came back from neighbours around the corner at about midnight. There was no-one around.
Charlie and Emma were both in. We gave both a quick cuddle and my husband gave Charlie his tablets. Charlie then went out and normally would have been back in within a couple of hours max. My husband wished he hadn't given Charlie his tablets as then he might not have gone out and I wish I'd gone and called for him before going to bed!
When he first disappeared, Emma was most put out that she only had one bowl of food as opposed to two to choose from. When we'd go out walking and calling, she'd follow us, meowing her head off. More than once we thought we'd heard Charlie only to discover that she'd come up behind us.
Even now, when I call him at night, she'll come running out meowing. Having said that, I think she feels there are advantages to being an 'only cat' as she doesn't have to share us and is getting extra compensatory cuddles!
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