Farewell Fiki - we will love you forever

 

 

It is with a still broken heart that I post today to say we lost our beloved Fiki Fox last night.

Born Mustafah Rafiki (meaning Chosen one and friend) our little Fiki was the runt of the litter – the one people suggest you don’t buy. We wanted litter mates and Kira was the only girl amongst three breeders we visited  and I desperately wanted a boy. He was such a gorgeous colour, even at 4 weeks old when we first met them, but he was small and kind of feeble looking.  He was half the size of his sister when we brought them home when they were just 12 weeks old. But we knew he would be big – he had enormous paws and bat ears. And it wasn’t long before he outstripped her in size quite considerably.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have loved all of our precious babies 100% but there is no denying our only boy held a special place in our hearts and we knew that when it came time to say goodbye it would be incredibly hard.

He was such a special cat. He was naughty, oh so naughty. He was deliberately wilfully naughty at times, breaking and destroying things, but then he would look at you with those limpid eyes, climb onto your knee and lie like a baby and you’d forgive whatever he did. He was a climber and a jumper and we had child locks on the doors to stop him breaking into cabinets. They almost worked.

He was incredibly photogenic and loved posing for the camera and his coat was exceptional as he had the prized rufus gene and was so glittered he literally shone.

He adored his sister,  sometimes too much to be ‘brotherly’ and they were inseparable their whole lives. One of the last things he did before we took him on his final journey was kiss his sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And he loved us. He had to be with us, all the time. Where we were, they were and he would go liquid in your arms and on your knee. Different vets were amazed that such a stunning Bengal was so docile and loving. He was our big warm-hearted, loving boy we totally adored.

 

 

 

And for a runt, he was actually very healthy. Apart from being diagnosed with PKD in 2012 (which didn’t really cause him any problems) he was a very trouble free cat. He became a bit stiff and he wouldn’t always manage to get quite all of his rear end inside the litter tray sometimes (thank goodness for puppy pads) but he was fit and active until the last few months.

He started to get bouts of quite bad diarrhoea and we had him checked and as it wasn’t constant and he was eating and still active no one was worried. He was ill after his vaccinations in August and he never really picked up fully. He was quiet and he started to lose weight rapidly. We had a full blood test run and it showed stage 2 kidney disease but that wasn’t as bad as his sister. Then just over 10 days ago he started to breathe oddly – heavier than usual and it got worse. His breathing seemed laboured and we watched him carefully and then he had one night where he was sick several times and felt hot. We took him to the vets and he had a fever and he had definite wheezing on one side. The vet said it could be an infection or asthma and gave a steroid jab to open up his airways and antibiotics to take at home. That was Friday. Saturday and Sunday he seemed about the same if not a little worse – but certainly no better. On Monday evening it became clear he was struggling, his breathing was terrible, he even had his mouth open, and he kept flinching as if in pain so we took him to the emergency vets. We had already discussed that we did not want invasive treatments for him. He was elderly and frail. He had lost a lot f weight very suddenly and we didn’t want him put through things that might extend his life by a few weeks or moths but be horrible to endure for him. The vet was lovely and she came out to talk to us after the examination and confirmed what we knew. His time was now. She said he had a great deal of fluid in his chest and the scan and the condition of him and the symptoms indicated it was, in all likelihood, a tumour. She said they could aspirate but it would come back quickly and he would be in the same situation. She agreed the kindest thing would be to say that final goodbye.

Due to COVID you are not allowed into vets but they allow you to go in for that final time. She put us in a consulting room and went and fetched him. He was breathing a little easier as he had been on oxygen and they had already cannulated him. He was a bit dazed and the vet left us with him for a while so we could take of our masks and kiss him goodbye. We fussed him and told him how much we loved him and that he wouldn’t be in pain anymore and then we held him whilst he made that final journey.

 

I cannot tell you how dreadful the last 24 hours have been. We bought him home in his basket and he looked just like he was sleeping peacefully. More peacefully than he had ina  while. He stayed with us in our bedroom overnight and we made sure Kira saw him. She was quite upset by it and cowered but we needed her to know. She has had an awful day – very upset and acting out of character, possibly because she can’t find her brother and also because we have cried for a lot of the day and she picks up on our upset.

Putting our gorgeous, energetic, handsome boy in the ground was so hard, but he is buried next to all of his family members in the garden and we know we have to move on. We have never ever had just one cat before, we have always had 2, often three, and for a brief 3 months we had 4. Now we just have our little girl Kira and we are trying not to kill her with over affection and over feeding! We will never ever forget Fiki. I cannot believe the wonderful comments for facebook friends and family. So many scrappers took time to say such lovely things because everyone in the scrapping community here knew Fiki. As many said, they watched him grow up, the followed his antics and they looked at his photos on the hundreds and hundreds of pages. Someone once called his ‘the most famous cat in the scrapbooking world’ and he really was.

In the words said to me by my best friend – whose visit even though socially distanced today meant so much – ‘Both of you have loved him (and his sister) like no other furparents could ever do. He was in the best family a cat could ever be in. He gave you so much love and that was equalled by the amount of love you gave him back. I’m so sorry that you’ve lost him, but I’m so happy that he was yours and you were his’

 

And as always – Pooh sums it up so well.

 

 

 

Rest in peace our little boy – play happily at Rainbow Bridge until we are all together again xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Mary]

So so sad! The tears are still filling my eyes as I write this.i know how Very hard it is To finally let your much loved pet go.but we all know the time has to come when we must let them go. To ease their pain no matter how much it hurts us to do that.and be so glad that we shared their life and enjoyed the Happy years we had with them,never to be forgotten X

[Mary]

Just looked through all the Beautiful pages you have made of your gorgeous boy,

[Gloria]

I am so very sorry for your loss. Since I have followed your blog for years I feel as though I knew your little boy. What a blessing you all were to each other. He had such an exceptional life. May your memories give you smiles.

[Jackey Barwick]

So sorry to read your news he was such a beautiful cat so beautifully marked and such fun to read about him in your scrapping. I think animal lovers always say why didn’t god make animals so they lived as long as humans. The Pooh reading of being in your heart for ever we had the clergy read to our 12 year old grand daughter at our daughters, her mother’s, funeral. Such a lovely Pooh saying. I think Marwell have lost a tiger over the last few days
Hope you both and your lone kitty cope over the next few days and in time able to smile and laugh at his antics

[Mike Smith]

What a lovely tribute, Karen!! I'm very sorry to hear about Fiki. I know how precious your kitties are to you and Nij. I hope you find peace knowing it was the best choice under the circumstances. Losing a pet can be very painful as sometimes you can grow more attached to them than humans. Perhaps you will find a mate for Kira. Keep the memories alive and cherish them always. Love and hugs from the U.S.
Your friend,
Mike

[Jaci S]

It’s taken me two days to read your news due to the tears. Fur babies are so very precious to us. He will be playing in heaven and up to his naughtiness whilst watching over you. Xx

[Lesley Anthony]

I’ve just read this and am in tears. I’m so very sorry. It’s so hard losing part of your family.
I’m away to give my two an extra cuddle.