Heffy & Marmite's Blog

Hello People,
My name is Marmite, and I’m the bestest buddy of Heffy. You might be wondering why I am writing and not Heffy? It is with such great sadness that I pass on this news, and even now I feel like crying. After a very short illness Heffy passed away on Monday.






Let me explain.
I first met Heffy a few weeks back when she came to stay with me and my brother and sisters; I was only 5 weeks old at the time, a big ball of fluff and scared of everything. We’d been told that Heffy was coming to stay the night, apparently Tracy and Paul were having party and it was to be a cat free zone, some people are just so rude!!! Anyway, as a tiddler myself I imagined this big monster charging in with scary eyes and big fangs, so I prepared myself with the scariest face possible and then hid 

Heffy emerged from her carrier and she kept on emerging she was huge, well she wasn’t really but I was only 8” long so most things are huge to me. She wasn’t scary although she did give us all a once over, a quick hiss just so we knew who was boss, then we jumped all over her and she loved it, I knew then she was going to be a brill friend..
With her mum and dad jetting off with Paul she settled into Tracy’s house, but Tracy had noticed that she just didn’t want to eat, she was eating bits and pieces, sleeping more and as the days went on, she stopped coming to see people and wanted to be by herself. Tracy tried so many things to get her eat, chicken, fish, all the stuff I would love but Heffy just didn’t want it, so last Thursday she took her to the vet for a check up. If you have read her recent entry you’ll know how she got on. Sunday came and Heffy really wasn’t very good, Tracy described it to me in her words:

Last night, (Sunday) Heffy continued to go downhill , she was dragging her right back leg behind her, then her left one too. It was so utterly distressing to watch her trying to move, Carlie would carry her to the litter tray but she would just lay down in it, and trying to get her to eat was no easier.
I continued to do this all day, ringing Katie for advice and just kept willing her to get better. She spent the evening with us in the front room, but just lay under the fire, unable to move, and as the night moved on; I became more and more upset. I just kept asking myself if I had missed something, had she hurt herself and I’d not noticed, it was just awful.

I let her sleep with me last night, I had to have her close to me, so she knew I was trying my best, I got up to try and get her to drink and eat, but she just wasn’t bothered. She was not in any pain, never made a sound so it was all so unreal. This morning, (Monday) it was clear she was no better and after a chat with Katie we got an appointment to take her to the vet at. Same vet who had seen her last week and who had treated Spunky too, so that felt reassuring...
They checked her all over, did a pinch test on her paw and she never even flinched, she couldn’t stand and I think then I knew I was going to lose her.... Dermot, the vet said he wanted to scan her to see what was going on, as he couldn’t feel a pulse in her leg, which of course was worrying. So I waited outside while they did all these tests, shaved her poor tummy and scanned her...

Diagnosis, was that they had found a heart murmur and the main artery was thickened, she had developed a condition called Disseminated intravascular coagulation. This is where there is an abnormality of clotting. The blood having clotted moved along her leg and had formed a kind of dvt in her leg, cutting off the supply. The underlying cause was Pancreatitis and Hepatitis. There was nothing the vet could do, the leg was already very cold and to expect her to carry on like this would have been so selfish...

It was, one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, to make that decision to put her to sleep, was overwhelmingly heartbreaking. Both Katie and I held her, I told her she would be seeing Spunky really soon and he would be looking after her, and as we held her, she took a final look into my eyes and fell asleep. Returning home, without her, and now not seeing her wander about is so hard, I feel lost, guilty and so incredibly sad.

So you can see from this Tracy is now incredibly sad, so I’ve invited myself to stay with her for a while see how things go, I know I can never replace Spunky or Heffy as they were both courageous and so incredibly brave, and I still pee myself when the Hoover goes on, so I’ve got a long way to go, but... I can at least let you know how Tracy and I get on Whilst Paul is away and who knows maybe she’ll fall in love with me just like she did with Spunky and my best buddy Heffy..... watch this space......