Rory Kitten

How do I write about Rory Kitten without sounding hopelessly sentimental? The very word kitten reeks of sentimentality doesn’t it? That’s my challenge. Let me start with the bad news. This week one year ago, on Saturday 29th October 2022 at about 7pm, Rory Kitten was run over right outside our house. This story does not end well, but perhaps it does …

We hadn’t intended to get a kitten at all. Somehow Rory Kitten leapt into our lives and demanded to be ours. That was his way.

In August 2022 we ended up with; The Teenager, Moss as a puppy and Rory Kitten. It was a fiasco! That summer we had so much fun. Yes, I remember clearing up endlessly, I got very little done except for looking after them all. He was confident, he was outrageous and he was full to the brim with love.

When Rory died, I remember thinking I’d forget all the quirky things he did, so I wrote them down, which set me to thinking. I guess what I’m saying is that Rory Kitten’s brief life was actually the inspiration behind justwalkingthedog.co.uk.

One of the things I will take from having had Rory Kitten was that we have The Teenager and we have Moss. What if we only had Rory Kitten?

How do people cope when they live on their own and they lose their one and only companion? How do people manage loss alone?

I’d like to dedicate this edition of justwalkingthedog.co.uk not only to the memory of Rory Kitten, but to all of those people who lose their one and only companion. I salute you.

AJK