Final Chapter for Page

We said goodbye to Page this month. Old injuries took their toll and we finally made the sad decision to put him to sleep last week. Page was no ordinary cat - almot from the very beginning he's been, well, different. My nephew Gavin got Page as a kitten and called the little ball of fluff Paige. It was only on his first visit to the vet (the first of quite a few over the years) that Gavin discovered that Paige was not in fact a wee girl but a tom - Paige became Page, in honour of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy of that ilk. When Gavin moved to a new flat in Telford Page went too, only to be stood on by a flatmate. His back and back legs were injured - resulting in an unmistakable wobbly gait - but Page lived to tell the tale; this was but the first of a few 'incidents' in Page's eventful life. When Gavin couldn't take Page when he moved to Cramond, Page was rehoused with us here in Drylaw. It was Page's first opportunity to get out of the house - and he seized it with all paws! Unfortunately hs ventures into the big wide worls brought him into contact with other wildlife and Page had a hard lesson to learn - that you don't fratenise with foxes! His initial meeting resulted in a hefty vet's bill and the loss of his most striking feature - a long, elegant tail. Undaunted (or clueless?) Page returned to Drylaw - tailless and even more wobbly - only to be attacked by foxes again the following year! A lengthy stay at the vets - and another eye-watering bill - later, Page was back in Drylaw. An older and wiser cat? No, not really! Page got through his nine lives - house fire, fox attacks, you name it - with gay abandon. He wasn't your average pet = he cared not a jot! Over recent months Page's old injuries caught up with him and he became inceasingly immobile - the spirit was still willing but the old legs just wouldn't work - and last week we made the horrible decision to take Page to the vets (which was pretty much his second home, anyway). It was no surprise when the vet decided to put him to sleep, and his end was very peaceful if very sad. With his rotten breath, the tuggy coat that made you sneeze when you picked him up, with the wee 'bullets' he left as presents sround the home to welcome you downstairs in the morning, you'd be forgiven for asking: what exactly did Page bring to the table? Well, he was a real wee character, a 'one-off' - the 'care in the community' cat who shared our lives for twelve years. Smelly, wobbly, comical ... we'll never forget Page and the house isn't quite the same without him!

September

You know summer's over when the Christmas stuff makes an appearance on the supermarket shelves! August wasn't even over when the selection boxes, tins of biscuits and Christmas cards hit the shops alonside the Halloween merchandise. Anyway a miserably wet summer has sloshed seamlessly into a drizzly autumn. September was more of the same, weatherwise - rain, high winds and just the occassional glimpse of bright sunshine and what might have been ... The poor old garden took a bit of a hammering with plants and shrubs blasted all over the place. We salvaged most of them, but the lack of sunlight gives the garden a dismal air, brightened only by the (very) occassional ray of sunshine. The garden promised so much this year but there's nothing you can do about the weather. The vegetable 'harvest' (pictured) - carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, spring onions - is unlikely to sustain us through the winter months! While the gardening wasn't great, I did take the opportunity to be at one with the local wildlife and decided to train a spider to do tricks. I selected Sammy (above) from a promising list of potential candidates, and the first session went very well. I was hopeful that by the end of the first day I would have Sammy doing somersaults, so you can imagine my disappointment when I returned after lunch to find that Sammy had 'left the building'. The ungrateful little sod had just disappeared! I have put further training initiatives on hold until I have built a new training centre out of cigarette packets and nilk cartons. That's very much a work in progress but should be completed next month - Caroline has helpfully suggested that perhaps I should look for a job, but how can I when I've got all this building work to do? The long-awaited arrival of baby Evie was the big event for the family this month, and she's pictured above with her proud faither and slightly over-excited grand-faither. She's settling in well, but her mum and dad have come to look back with nostalgia on the days and nights of pure, beautiful unbroken sleep! Life's full of ups and downs, and on the down-side was the demise of Knutt's car, Nigel. It's fair to say that Knutt has fallen out of love with Nigel over recent months - with with exhausts and spare tyres falling off, too many punctures to mention and the odd case of non-starting it's easy to see why. However at the end of the month one kindly motorist took pity on Knutt by slamming into the back of Nigel. The upshot is that Nigel is no more - the bad news for Edinburgh and Lothians motorists is that Knutt is on the lookout for a replacement car ... We took in the Festival fireworks finale at Ann's house in Murrayfield and while we all had a very enjoyable evening the winds and drizzle meant that we disn't see too many fireworks! A damp squib - save for Evie's appearance, that just about sums up September.