I made this page as a tongue-in-cheek test ground for the volunteer application form (apologies if you found your way here looking for it). We aren’t allowed to have favourites at Syros Cats, but as this is a secret page I can admit it now, Skoupy is and was always my favourite cat. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to create a page with my favourite cat as the guardian of our secret test area, I didn’t think I would be revising it less than a month later to this…
Skoupy was not like any other cat here, sure they are all lovable, they are all special and I love them all dearly, but she was special in ways I can’t really describe through the pain of missing her. She never asked for anything (except food, she is a cat after all ) beyond affection and cuddles. I know she had a special bond with many here at Syros Cats, but, in my selfish way I thought she and I were specially connected on some weird level (although I am going to guess there are a huge number of people who feel exactly the same!). If she saw me, she made a bee-line to my lap and would stay for hours. She would follow me everywhere, calling for my attention as was at her happiest just sat next to me in the kitchen or on me in the sun on the terrace after breakfast. She let me give her medication and never complained or got grumpy. I didn’t even really mind the smell and drool in the old days before her health improved. Ultimately she made me feel special, maybe that was her gift, and it’s one I cherish every day.
I missed the miraculous birth of April and Isaac, but watched it unfold from afar with pride and love. It somehow made her even more special, that despite all that she had dealt with and gone through she had enough energy and love to raise two perfect kittens.
Her passing was so sudden, so unexpected, so final that I barely had a chance to say goodbye, although I was lucky to be able to cuddle her for one last time before she left. I will always be grateful for that moment, feeling her fur as she snuggled into my arm, looking into her big yellow-brown eyes as she left in a cage for the last time. I’m heartbroken she has gone, but at the same time relieved she is no longer in any pain and won’t experience any suffering. She’s free now and more than most has earned her rest.
It’s strange here without her, it feels empty yet of course life goes on and others cats need our love and affection, its just difficult to sit at the breakfast table, or on the sofa in the snug, or in a spot in the sun and not expect a beautiful black and white ball of love to come looking for you…
Goodbye Skoupy, thank you for being in all our lives, for making our days happier and for being the very best cat we could ever dream of. I can still see you know, tail up, eyes bright and walking towards whatever adventure awaits you next. Go with all our love and know you will never ever be forgotten. You will always have a place in all our hearts.
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