Felicita Obituary

Approximately 4 years ago I discovered a cute little black kitten doing a kind of limbo dance to get underneath my fencing. She was so amazing to watch I decided to feed her a bit of milk mixed with 2 thirds of water (since a baby cat is so much smaller than a calf). We played hide and seek and a little later she allowed me to pick her up and take her indoors. Prior to this I made sure there is no cat mum missing her. This is a bit difficult to establish as of a complete litter only one baby looks like mum. At first I called her Felix but then I discovered he is a she and I changed her name to Felicita. She quickly became our absolute darling. Felicita with her black shinny fur that actually in the sun looked a lovely warm brown colour, soft like velvet, her aristocratic fine features, turned out to be a Burma cat, always gentle, all the other cats liked her and as this beauty grow older my Tabby brown "Tiger" fell in love with her. He always knew in which room she was, if that door was closed he patiently waited in front. It is a well-known fact that some cats can open doors, when it comes to a door without a handle it is more tricky. Felicitas trained us to open the door whenever she knocked the key attachment against the door. Some of our other cats proofed their ability to learn by watching and started to copy this behaviour. When Lilly arrived (bitten by a dog and hit by a hooligan) similarly freatures and fur, they quickly became friends. I used to call them my black ladies. Felicitas liked to run outside and play hide and seek with me, making use of parked cars. On one of these outings I lost her. I searched in vain in the neighbourhood, kept calling her name and asked children to help, they eventually showed me a house where they thought she was kept. The young man at the door denied this. Feeling sure that my little treasure would return if she can, I offered a small sum as a reward for her return. This worked miracles. After 11 sad days in March 2017, the previously mentioned young man brought me back my little darling. She had lost weight, her fur had lost its shine, she didn't look well at all but it was great to have her back. My little sunshine soon recovered but kept a cold which became chronic, various treatments only brought temporarily a relief. In Sept. 2018 I discovered Felicitas just pretending to eat. A later blood test showed she suffered from kidney problems, luckily she loved her special diet from the vet's but would only eat a small portion at a time. All other cats wanted these croquettes as well and she would allow them to "to steal" her food, began to drink a lot and eat frequently her small portions. At the same time she started to loose weight again, end of January 2019 down to 2,5 kg, in April only 2,1 kg, a sad sight my little treasure. Nevertheless she continued to cuddle with us and liked to wrap herself around my neck like a collar. Then she stopped eating, acted as if she wanted to eat but then turned her head away. Very depressing. She disappeared within our house and I feared she might be following an instinct to hide while weak and sick so that an  animal doesn't become easy prey. Then I heard her calling me. I felt so relieved and happy. She knew I love her. My bony little treasure slept in my arms that night and the following one. Waking up holding her, a great gift. I asked the vet whether she can save her life but of course I didn't want Felicita to suffer for my sake, so that I can have her just a little longer. The vet finally confirmed my greatest fear, my precious black lady was too sick to recover, we had to say goodbye, maybe we'll meet again in another world. I miss her so.