Yesterday at feeding time Felix, the old beat up neutered tom, did not show. He has been looking increasingly shabby of late, the vet suggested that he has cat AIDS. He has been with us for three or four years. He was fearful and wild. Other younger cats taught him to come close to us. Of late he has let me touch him and he rubs himself up against me at feeding time. We play picky-ups, where I pick him up with my foot and drop him gently out of the way. He keeps coming back for more. It is a game he likes. You can usually set your watch to his stomach. No sign of Felix. Gandalf was fed as per usual.

This morning again no sign of Felix. Something has unnerved Gandalf the young, spayed female. She followed me around the garden like a limpet. I was looking to find a perhaps dead or injured Felix. She was very attentive and seeking physical contact. No sign of Felix. Not in any of his usual haunts.

We understand that our care of Felix is perhaps end of life and palliative.

I just went out to feed Gandalf down by the river and with all the noise Felix arrived. He is in a bad way with what looks like a blunt force wound to his head. There is a swollen open cut like a boxer’s injury. Gandalf seemed pleased to see him and yielded the bowl to him. No contest.  I came back to the house to get another bowl and she followed me, while there was food available. She mewed and followed me back down to where Felix was feeding. It was as if she was asking me to feed them both as is the usual custom.

I put her bowl down and she was edgy, hardly snacking. She kept greeting Felix who was trying to eat. I stood there and petted Gandalf a little. She had a few mouthfuls. I was standing like presidential “security” while the two cats ate. Something bad has gone down and freaked them out. In the past when scared or injured, cats have sought me out. I have taken scaredy-cats out into the dark for a late night piss. Gandalf remembers humans and some of her memories are good. Perhaps some not. She is glued to the side of the house where she feels safe at the moment.

Felix has finished eating and is out by the greenhouse for his post feed snooze. I have been to look and his left eye is closed again like a boxer. He has some kind of injury to that side of his mouth. Looks like a car or dog or fox and not a cat inflicted wound. Gandalf was again following me like a magnet and it looked as if she was getting ready to jump up into my arms. Which would be a first. I “took” her close to Felix and she quieted down a little. She knows he is poorly. At the moment they are sat close to the house near the magnolia.

It might be wise to swing by the vets tomorrow to ask what to do. That wound could go septic, it does not look clean and Felix is not washing after eating, which is something he usually does.

The cats are clearly unsettled by some kind of trauma…