Last year, a beautiful tough boy started visiting us - he was a bit grumpy but we half adopted him - he belonged to next door but one but seemed to spend lots of time with us -they have various other animals, including a shouty dog Anyway, long story short, we got our own big fat cat, who I've mentioned on here before and lovely cat got a little pissed off and came less frequently. In the past few weeks, he has been looking desperately ill and thin and just spent days waiting on our doorstep - we would let him in for a while and he would have a little snooze (though hiss and shout if we tried to touch him) and then potter off. On Thursday night, he lay dying in our front garden. it was horrible. I went to get the owners whose first comment was 'oh no, we've only just paid for his last operation'. They came and took him - as they picked him in a blanket, he howled, looked at me and his eyes went black - I think he died at that point. I am devastated. He wasn't even ours, but I really loved him :( I asked the owners about what sort of illness he had and they didn't even seem to think he had been unwell. For god's sake he was skin and bone. I wish I had stepped in and done more for him, but dh says he was beyond help and we did our bit by looking out for him. It's ridiculous how sad I am :( They buried him in their garden amidst much wailing and I just want to go and shout at them. I am clearly being a bit unhinged but I would never let FatCat get to that state without taking him to a vet or at least keeping him inside and warm. So sad.