Sleep well, darling cat

Our beloved cat has died. We got a call on Tuesday morning to say Amber had been found by someone at the local Lewisham Council depot. He was kind enough to find out who she was (she'd recently managed to lose her collar) via her microchip, where she lived and to get in touch. He even laid her in a box lined with a protective blanket a bit like a lined cat basket. 

We couldn't be more grateful to George for his persistence and kindness. We're lucky that we know what became of her and to have had the chance to bring her home and place her gently in one of her favourite sunny spots in the garden surrounded by her favourite playthings. 

We miss her madly, of course. We shared photos and tales and text messages about 'that cat' daily. Without her, life feels very empty. Amber made us a family. She was clever, bright, affectionate, playful and seemed to have a sense of humour. We miss her massively. Who else could we play peg football - the game of passing a plastic clothes peg under the closed internal doors - with? Bathtimes and mealtimes were frequently enlivened by this game, invented by Amber. 

Who else will leap delightedly into the air with a toy mouse or bauble? Who else will delicately step along the drawer top and take her pick from among the assembled trinkets to gently push onto the floor and flick around. 

Laps are going left unwarmed; laptop keyboards can be used without interruption; 'presents' are no longer brought in from the garden and toes are not being bitten. One of Amber's recent endearances was to bite on Mark's toes in order as he made the tea of a morning. 

A sense of perspective says we shouldn't be so upset by something as trivial as the loss of a pet, but home is where the heart is and Amber was very much the heart of our home life. She brightened up our lives in incalculable ways. 

At less than two years old and in our lives for just over 18 months, she had cruelly little time on this earth. We were the luckiest couple there is that she shared that time with us.