Alfie

Feeling very sad tonight. We had to take the dreadful decision, on the vet's advice, to say a final goodbye to our lovely black stealth cat, Alfie.

Aged just ten years, Alfie had recently and very rapidly lost weight, as well as his appetite and usual zest for life. Tests showed it was due to a very aggressive form of bowel cancer.

I felt particularly close to Alfie because of his difficult start in life. His mum was our little tortoiseshell cat Missy, who was one year old when she had her kittens. When they were just five weeks old, she was run over in the road outside the house while taking a brief breather from her babes. So I pipette-fed the kittens until they were big enough to wean, and we decided to keep one of them. Alfie.

He was a great character and had a wonderful life, roaming in the fields behind the house. He was a great mouser. We'll miss him very much. RIP Alfie.