Jack was a quiet, sweet old boy I was privileged to share 7 months of my life with. He came into care as an un-neutered stray with a chronic ear infection which was affecting his eye, and very bad teeth. Life must have been miserable for him with so much chronic pain. Felines 1^st arranged for him to be neutered and to have a dental exam during which it was found that all his teeth needed to be removed. Even after his mouth began to heal, his ear infection required constant care and we were sure he would need a permanent foster home as he would never be healthy enough to be rehomed.

When he came to me, Jack was thin and scared. He immediately hid under the bed and only came out for food. Luckily, he loved his food, so he came out often and began to spend more and more time out. Another fosterer made him a bed which he really liked and spent a lot of his time in. He always liked to sleep under the bed, but this evolved to be in his bed, just under the edge, in the front rather than as far as possible away from me and to the back.

Although they could not be cured, his ear and eye improved greatly and bothered him less and less. His mouth healed and he seemed a happy boy, purring whenever I stroked him and giving me squinty eyes whenever I looked at him or spoke to him. We enjoyed each other’s company, and he spent his days on his favourite shaggy blanket on my bed while I worked on the computer a few feet away. He loved attention and would purr and give me love bites on the nose to tell me how much he appreciated our time together.

One day I noticed he had not touched his food or water overnight and his appetite began to decline over the next few days. The vet found that his liver was failing due to diabetes. We tried to get the diabetes under control to help his liver, but it was too much for him. He died just a few days later.

I miss Jack very much and wish I could have done more for him. I am so glad he came to the rescue when he did and had time at the end of his life to be loved, fed like a king and relieved of the chronic pain he had lived with for so long. I am especially glad he spent his last few months with me, he was a special cat and he made life so much better for me as well.