Our little grey stray, Stella (aka Grey Thing or Misery Guts - because she was) sadly had to be pts this morning. She came into our lives a couple of years ago. We saw her first, marching steadfastly along the lane from the A40, and in the way of cats, she kept turning left, and eventually found us. A pretty cat - grey with a white bit, tummy and paws and hints of a tabby in her ancestry. We thought that the grey tom who had been this way (and sired the boys) had been her dad, but with the benefit of hindsight (she was almost certainly much older than we thought, in her teens) she was more likely his mum or (g.g.g.) granny.
Anyway, she wasn't comfortable around the other cats, and swore and hissed a lot, and was not a happy cat. She only purred a few times whilst she was with us, and liked to sleep on the dresser, away from the others. She had been spayed, and knew all about cat flaps.
Over the winter she was even more scowling and unhappy, and just came in to eat and then went out over to the farm the rest of the time. About two months ago she suddenly lost a lot of weight, and wasn't eating much. When the weather improved, she disappeared altogether, although there were occasional sightings of her down by the bridge. But she never came back to us.
On Monday, Next Door's tractor driver said that he had seen a grey cat which he thought was ours, by the Chapel, staggering around and looking very ill. I went down with the cat box and found her patiently sitting (hunting) at the roadside. She was in a bad way though. We took her to the vet, who said her kidneys were very enlarged but without blood tests, they couldn't offer medication. We couldn't go down that route, as we were pretty certain she wasn't going to stay around with us to HAVE any medication. Anyway, we brought her home and for 24 hours she ate and perked up. Then yesterday her kidneys had gone into overdrive, and the litter box had the evidence, and then we found her in her bed, with the paper saturated too, so she was incontinent. Then she stopped eating, and we had a discussion with the vet, and took her down this morning to be pts. I am sad that she had gone, but there was no real alternative, and I think her illness made her so defensive and unhappy to be around other cats. We offered her shelter, food and love while she was with us, and compassion at the end.