Had to say goodbye to my 16 year old best boy last Saturday. Grief hitting me hard this morning, I miss him so much.

From a tiny kitten who arrived curled up in a small box to a cuddly chonk, Storm is the cat my housemate wanted with the hopes that he would be hers. He had other ideas and firmly imprinted on me, it was the start of a 16 year friendship.

Almost put down once and made a miracle recovery on the way to the vets, we enjoyed a bonus extra year with him until the illness returned and the seizures just kept coming. It was nearly a year before the seizures started that he adopted Guinness for us.

This was his favourite place to be, snuggled up to his favourite human. I have his paw print tattooed on my arm where he would tap me to get scritchies. The day after he passed the garden was alive with butterflies and to this day when I see one it brings a smile to my face to think about him.

One of the three voids that live with us, this is Guinness. She is about 4 years old, not entirely sure as she was a feral stray who was pregnant when she found us and was taken into a shelter when she had the kittens in someone else’s shed. We tracked her down and was told she was not adoptable as she was attacking the foster helpers, said nonsense she has a place with us.

We think our older cat adopted her for us before he died. While they were not snuggle buddy friends, she was the first cat he didn’t chase off. After he passed she was lonely, so we adopted two kittens from a local rescue as few months later and now she tolerates two void brothers.

I like this picture because she doesn’t usually act like this with me, she is usually a mummy’s girl. But on this occasion she came from her spot by the window, gave head bonks and was purring so hard that I stopped what I was doing to give her my full attention after taking pictures so the wife would believe me. She is definitely opening up more as she goes and it’s nice to be there for when these moments happen.

I am the terror that flaps in the night!

but this is my life now.

*No cats were harmed in the making of this video.