Born in a house in the country-side, this light orange stripe cat was given to a couple who kept him indoors in spite of the fact that he was an outdoor type of cat whose great pleasure of life consists in roaming and romping in gardens whilst pretending he is a tiger in the jungle! This of course put the cat off his rocker and the man in the couple, exasperated by the cat's insistence to go outdoors, wacked him on his hind-quarters with a rolled-up newspaper each time he climbed up on the window ledge and mewed quite loudly to have the window open to go outside. The cat was becoming very wild and untamed, just looking at him made him fly against his masters.

Saved !
Luckily a friend of this couple, seeing the state the poor cat was in, decided to take the cat to their home in a second floor apartment and gave him all their love. But this was not enough because the poor cat's main wish was to be outdoors, in the big gardens, frisking about chasing all that moves. He kept climbing on the window ledges and started literally crying, begging for freedom but it was too high even with an open window. Speedi started to become more and more nervous, excitable, and they couldn't even touch him without it clawing at the hands that were supposed to caress and love him. On top of it all, there was another cat in the household, along with a parrot and Speedi also became very jealous and chased the other cat under the beds, even up the walls. When the woman learnt she was expecting a baby, she decided that to keep Speedi would be dangerous. Effectively there was danger but not that one : when the baby was born, he immediately developed severe allergy to cat fur and the decision was taken to get rid of the cats and the bird.

His New Home !
Upon learning that these people did not know what to do with this cat, we proposed to take care of it, our son having stated that he would want an orange tiger cat and we having a fine garden with hedges and cool corners under the trees. But we had to take their two cats and upon arrival in our home, Speedi instantaneously marked this as his own territory and claimed it definitely. He also chased the other cat away so as to remain the sole owner of his new home. Since then, this big yellow marmelade cat has completely invested the garden and as the tiger in his forest, he slinks around under the bushes and the flower, convinced that he really is a tiger...
 

Our darling cat Speedi passed away on Wednesday late afternoon...

...after having told us the evening before that his end was near and before the pain settled in, my son and I walked to his vet and after softly mewing in gratitude for all we did for him, sat as a Sphinx on the operation table, put his paw out in front of him and did not even finch when the needle was pricked into his vein. He died almost immediately at the first drop, and I put him on his side holding his head and wished him a fine trip to his new surroundings, the happy hunting grounds of all animals. He did not suffer at all and looked amazingly happy in his death mask, the corners of his jowl which had come down during his last day, formed a smile when death came on.

We buried him in his favourite spot under the birch tree and we put a stone in the shape of a cat's head on his grave. My sons had big tears full their eyes and even the girl friend couldn't help shedding a sob or so. Perhaps we are over sentimental but after 18 years of life in commune, our attachments to our wonderful Speedi were such that he merited our tears whatever people might think !