Nov 1, 2009 - Eve and Jimmy

Besides rabbits, Celtic Haven welcomes cats too. Eve and Paul Curtis from London enjoyed their first visit earlier this year and brought their 24 year old feline companion Jimmy.

Sadly, Jimmy passed away recently. After having another stroke (from which he never really recovered) Eve and Paul had to make the agonizing decision to have him put to sleep on the 11th September.

Of course they miss him so much and the house is strangely quiet without him.

We enjoyed meeting Jimmy – he was a beautiful cat. All at Celtic Haven offer our condolences to Eve and Paul. We hope everyone who visits this page will get to know him better and it will serve as a testament to the fabulous feline he was.

This is what Eve wrote about Jimmy after their visit to Celtic Haven in May 2009.

“Jimmy was taken poorly shortly after our return (nothing to do with the holiday I might add!) - it was touch and go for a while whether he would recover, but I'm pleased to say he's not away with the fairies just yet, although he's had a few near misses.

I think he really enjoyed coming to stay at Celtic Haven. This was the first time we'd ever taken him away with us and I was worried that he wouldn't take kindly to the traveling but he loved it (he's never had a basket to travel in and prefers to sit on his blanket in the car, down by my feet (obviously not when I'm driving). He enjoyed basking in the warm sunlight that streamed through the window of our cottage every day at Puffin Cottage.

Whenever I take him to the vet (which has been quite a lot recently) I only wrap him in his blanket and he's happy to sit in the vets with all the mayhem going on around him and he doesn't bat an eyelid (needless to say, they all love him at the vets as well).

I've had Jimmy since he was a few months old. He originally belonged to a neighbour a few doors along - I already had a dog and a cat, plus a stray that I took in, which subsequently had 3 kittens. After finding a home for the stray and two of the kittens, I kept a little ginger one that seemed to get on well with my dog and other cat. It was then Jimmy started visiting more and more, until eventually he seemed to live more in my house than my neighbour's. My neighbour was away working a lot, so asked me if I'd take Jimmy on, as he was unable to look after him when he was away. So that's how I came to get him. He always got on well with my other pets and, as he and the ginger kitten were the same age, they were always playing together.

One of their favourite tricks was to hang on to the dog's ears (he was a Springer spaniel, so had long flopping ears), he's end up trying to walk along dragging a kitten on each ear!! Unfortunately, the little ginger kitten died when he was just 9 months old, so Jimmy lost his playmate. But he found a new pastime: when we took the dog for a walk, he'd come as well, running across gardens and jumping over fences to follow us, until we got to a main road, where he'd stop and wait on a fence until we came back, then he'd race us back home. Over the years my other pets passed away, until there was just Jimmy left.

As I'm typing this, Jimmy is fast asleep on my lap. Unfortunately, he's been having a bit of a rough time of it recently. He's currently recovering from a bout of cystitis (apparently quite common in male cats strangely enough), so as well as all the other pills he has to take, he's now on antibiotics as well, poor little mite. He's not doing too well and is struggling to get around at the moment, but I'm hopeful he'll recover (as he seems to keep doing).

He used to be quite a tyrant in his younger days and would often stay out overnight if there was something interesting going on in the cat neighbourhood - he certainly ruled the roost, he used to be enormous when he was young and would sit on the path intimidating all the local cats (but strangely enough, he never used to get into many fights). It's only in the last two years, since he's been unwell, that he's lost weight. The funny thing is, even now, if I let him sit on the front path while I'm doing the garden (he's not allowed out on his own any more), the local cats still seem to give him a wide berth.

One of his most favourite pastimes used to be falling asleep in his bed with his head on the radiator - it didn't seem to matter how hot it got, Jimmy loved it. Another of his favourite tricks, when he was more mobile, was jumping on the bed early in the morning and lying on top of me and tapping my face with his paw until I got up to feed him!!

We've had lots of fun with him over the years and will certainly miss him when he's gone.”

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