IN MEMORIAM

In 2001, when I had had to put down my free-running household pet due to FIV I decided to get an indoor cat and thus started looking for a pedigree cat. Very quickly I chose the burmese cat and in the summer of 2001, Guinness and Bailey moved into my apartment. During their first years while I lived in the apartment, they were primarily indoor cats and were only outside under surveillance. Once they came with me to my parent's summerhouse where they stayed very close to the house and to me.

When I started looking for a house in 2004 I deliberately chose a house in an area where I believed my cats safely could run free. A dead-end street in a quiet neighbourhood on the one side and a large marshland area on the other side where they could go hunting and really make use of their senses.

As it happened, there were many free-running cats in the area which resulted in some fights and stress situations, even between Guinness and Bailey who were normally the best of friends. However, once they had tried running free it became difficult to keep them in the yard and particularly Bailey would not be able to live without the marshland area where he spent many hours every day.

Approximately one month after Galliano moved in, 23 September 2007, Bailey was found by the side of the street. He had been hit by a car at 8 am on a Sunday morning on a dead end street and was killed instantly. If it can happen here at that time of the day, it can happen everywhere and therefore, Temple Bar kittens will not be sold to a life where they have to play with cars.

As a result, I experienced a grieving cat. Guinness lost the brother he had lived with for 6½ years and who he had loved unconditionally and leant on in many ways. Galliano was young and lively and wasn't able to compensate him for his loss, so when this situation had lasted for about a month, Sander moved in and Guinness started to fill his new role as the "head of the family" and oldest cat in the house.

In order to give him some free time, he kept his permission to run free, whereas Sander and Galliano were kept indoors with access to a fenced-in yard. Unfortunately, Bailey's stress had been contagious and not only had Guinness become an older gentleman with an aching back, he also felt the pressure from all sides, both the strange cats outside and unfortunately also Sander who loved him dearly and just wanted to play. In the autumn of 2009 I took the difficult decision to give him peace.

Guinness and Bailey are both buried at the edge of the marshland - an area where they both enjoyed to roam.