My poor mum and dad have just lost their second cat.

[NorthernLurker]

They lost the sister on dd2s birthday in January, presumed heart failure. Now they've lost her brother after two months of struggle with vet visits, chest drainage and multiple meds. He went out this morning and they found him dead in the field behind the house at lunchtime. So tbh pretty good end for poor boy but they are very sad of course.

It's dads bithday in a fortnight. I was thinking I could look for a picture or other memento. One was a tortie with quite a bit of white and long hair, the other was black. Any ideas where to look?

That's so sad, I'm sorry to hear. Hugs for your mum and dad

That's so sad. They must have had an inherited heart defect. I had 2 brothers, Barnaby was killed on the road aged 3 and his brother Troy died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy aged 5. My DP used 2 photos of them and had an artist he found on the internet draw pencil drawings of them for my birthday. Not cheap but a lovely memento. I honestly don't know how he can top that for my 50th next year.

for your parents.

That's awful, it does sound like there was something wrong with the litter though. It's terrible luck for them.

They were ten I think. Yes, clearly a defect but not surprising. They were semi feral from a farm we have a connection with. The farm people won't neuter so there's a cat colony with inbreeding etc. Mum and dad rescued these two as kittens and tamed them. They have another brother and sister pair from the same place who are about 4 and definitely from a different mother. There is a reasonably high mortality in the farm kittens and none of the adults have lived as long as these two. So they did well really. Poor parents are sad but relieved they didn't have to decide.

I know somebody whose daughter draws dogs, wonder if she can do cats?

I suspected the parents of my 2 were brother and sister. Barnaby was being treated for struvite crystals before he died. If he didn't die like he did I expect he wouldn't have lived long either.