Hi Chris,

I have a very touching animal story, which I'd like to share with you and the readers of this site :

My husband and I didn't have any pets, but our neighbours had 2 cats and 2 dogs. It didn't take one of the cats, McDuff, long to find out that he'd get more attention from us 2 'pet-less' people, than he got at home with 3 other pets in the house.
It all started one summer, when we had our kitchen window, facing the back yard, open, and suddenly heard this bump-bump sound, and when we checked it out, there was McDuff standing on the floor looking at us.
This was the wonderful beginning to a long friendship. When I came home from work, McDuff would be sitting on the back fence waiting to spot any movement in the kitchen. It became a habit for me to go straight to the back window to see if McDuff was waiting. As soon as he saw me, he'd jump off the fence and run across the lawn up to the window, wanting to be let in.
At times he would already be sitting on the bench outside the window, when I got home, and all you could see, was his beautiful face at the bottom corner of the window.
We did get 'permission' from our neighbours to take him into our house, and on the odd occasion, he stayed over night.
This went on for a couple of years.
At one point we thought McDuff wasn't his normal self, kind of less attentive and alert, and we mentioned that to his 'parents', who said they hadn't noticed any change in his behavior.

A couple of weeks or so later, my husband and I had been to the airport late at night to pick-up some family members.
When we got home, which was about 1:30 am, we noticed McDuff sitting at our front door waiting for us. We all went inside, incl. McDuff, who after having greeted us, did a quick sniff around in the house, and then wanted to be let out again. This happened in the early hours of the Friday morning.
The following day, Saturday morning, there was a knock on our door. It was our neighbour. As she knew how much we loved McDuff, she wanted to let us know, that they on Friday night had taken McDuff to the vet as he was having trouble breathing. Apparently he had an enlarged heart, and the decision was made "to let him go". . . .
We mourned McDuff for weeks, - - - I just couldn't help thinking of, how he knew what was happening and had come to say "good bye". It was so emotional, and I still cry when I think of him.

3 months later we decided to get our own cat, and we went to the Humane Society and adopted a "McDuff-look-alike".
When our neighbours saw him, they said "You may call him McDuff", but we chose the name Kiko, as there could only be ONE McDuff.
We have now enjoyed Kiko's company for over 10 years, and just love him to bits! If it wasn't because of McDuff, we would most likely never had adopted a cat, as we were more "dog-people", as we had both had dogs as kids.

Sincerely
Grethe Lund,
Toronto, Ontario,
CANADA

Author: Grethe Lund (Ms)
Country: Canada
True story: Yes
Rating: 2 paws down
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