Believe me: boisterous toddlers will be too rough with your cat sometimes! But she would put up with it and get him back by ambushing him from some hidden vantage point as past, leaving him in fits of giggles as he looked round to find his agile assailant had already disappeared again.
When Zack had fallen asleep at night she would curl up with him on his bed. More than once we found the pair asleep lying side by side, Zack with his arm around her.
This morning we had to tell Zack the sad news, to try and explain that – like his sister Angel and Harry & Ron the Hamsters before that – Jess was gone and he wouldn’t see her again. He responded by asking for toast and jam for breakfast, which tells you something about children. Soon though, the idea that Jess really was gone seemed to sink in and he told us he was feeling sad.I will miss Jess too, and I really feel for Zack who will miss her most of all, but for me the whole experience was just too close to when we had to tell Zack about his sister. My feelings about Angel are still so strong and those nerves so raw that this has all left me in pieces this morning: every time I’ve tried to talk to someone so far today, I’ve choked.
But I guess this should be about Jess. She brought a lot of joy to our home over the past months, a time during which there has also been much sadness, and I’m saddened that this has been brought to an end so soon. She had become part of our family – just yesterday Zack, unprompted, referred to her as “Jess Pearson”.
We will all miss Jess, especially Zack.
