Mother and son

First the sad news - my neighbours cat Cookie was knocked over by a car and killed  last evening.  I was reading a post on the residents Facebook page and someone  had found a black cat nearby which had been hit by a car and was dead.  They had children with them so they couldn't do anything so they were asking if anyone was missing a cat.  My neighbour Jen came on to the post later to say she had been round to where the cat was and found it was her cat Cookie.  I was in tears when I read this. 

Anyone who has been following me for a while will know how fond I was of little Cookie.  When my previous cat Bobby was alive he and Cookie were great pals.  I used to call Cookie my  " daytime lodger ".  He was locked out of his house all day after his owners had gone to work so he would come straight round here, come into the garage through the cat flap and settle down in my washing basket ( which I had lined with a towel ) and have a nap while he waited for me to let him into the house.  Then he would have some food and head upstairs to sleep on my bed - sometimes alone and sometimes with Bobby.  Or in the winter he would lie beside a hot radiator.  In Summer I would see Bobby and Cookie on the roof of next doors shed relaxing in the sunshine. He was always around.

After Bobby died I buried him in my garden and Cookie came to sit beside me as I did it. I like to think he was saying Goodbye to his pal. Cookie continued to come into my house as usual.  It was lovely to still have a cat around. Of course this stopped when I got Tino and Lily.  I did try once to see if they would all get on but it just wasn't to be.  I still saw Cookie regularly of course - he would run over  if he saw me in the street and got his usual tummy tickles.  And whenever I was gardening he would keep me company.  He was an adventurous little cat and often went missing.  And in later years he had no tail - he lost that in a car accident.  I guess he ran out of lives last night. R.I P my little friend COOKIE ( click this link to see a lovely photo of him.)  I have also added a couple of photos of him in my Extras.

There is some good news - I'm feeling a bit better.  My friend Jan changed our Morrisons shopping trip to this morning instead of tomorrow and luckily I felt OK ( ish ) this morning and I was able to go.  As I haven't done any food shopping since last Wednesday I was glad to stock up the fridge with fresh food.

Neil had the day off today and he asked if I wanted to meet up and go for a meal.  As I had more of an appetite today I decided to go.  We went to Ask Italian in The Metrocentre.  I figured an indoor shopping centre was a good choice to escape from the cold, wet and windy weather.  Our meals were delicious - Neil had salmon wrapped in ham with potatoes and a tomato sauce and I had Sea Bass Alforno which also came with potatoes.  We had a good catch up. 

Neil left to walk home - in the rain! and I did a bit of shopping.  It felt good to have the energy just to wander round the shops.  I didn't stay long though - didn't want to push my luck.

Steps today - 8,006