When my son was nine, he asked for a sibling. I negotiated him down to a pet and Mogget arrived in our lives as a two-month-old domestic short-hair kitten. Eighteen years and three months later, she stopped eating. And, within a week, drinking.
At the vet’s, I learn she’s lost a kilogram since her last visit – how did I not notice? The vet is kind. She dances around what needs to be said. I tell her Mogget continues to walk up and down our stairs, wakes me every day at 4.55am by bulldozing my head, loves lying in the sun.