He has gone to Cat Heaven. He was such a character and I was so SOH fond of him. It's hard not to be reminded of him as he spent most of his time in this house. Nearly everywhere I look, I am reminded of him poor sweetie. If I look out the front room window - I am reminded of seeing him crossing the road from his folks house, to come back over to us. If I look at the 'perches' in the kitchen ( a bit like cat feeding stations) I am reminded of him. It is sad to think I will never see him again.
The photo here was taken in August 2010 just over a year ago where he looks reasonably healthy. I loved how he'd actually kind of look at you. Not all cats do that. Towards the end he was looking terrible and had lost his 'pep'. It's an awkward situation when you have a cat practically living in your house except he isn't actually your cat. I had previously mentioned to D and H. our neighbours ( his owners) that we were concerned and felt that things were not right with him. I think it was only then that we became aware that he was already 16 years old - we hadn't realised he was that age.
Its such a dilemma where animals are concerned in that, if they are still eating (which he was) we tend to think they are kind of OK, but he wasn't. All the while there was a tumour growing in his liver.
That's what D. our neighbour, said the vet told him. He had taken Toby to the vets on the previous Friday and they had kept him in, over the weekend and then sent him home with a months worth of medication. But from the time Toby came home, after that weekend of veterinary treatment in their hospital - he was still not himself. I gave him a final pat on the head as he sat at the foot of the stairs in D.'s (my neighbour) house. By then Toby was just existing his spirit had moved out of him - away into the ether. I was surprised that he had survived even that far. I had thought that he might have passed away over the weekend. Must have been horrible for D. having taken him back up to the vets on that Friday because he 'd obviously got a lot worse. It was then that the vets along with D. came to the conclusion that it'd be for the best, to put him out of his misery and D. left the building empty handed.
That's the obverse of loving - losing - but we had so many sweet treasured times together..................love you dear little Toby - I was blessed to have you as my little companion for these past 4 years.
Artists Books
Outside of this event - the last six months or so I have been working on making an edition of artists books for the BookArtObject project. The first bound books I ever made. I am still in the process of sending them out to my fellow participants and so have not shown them online so as not to spoil the surprise.
I have been documenting the process somewhat taking the odd photo with my digital SLR and have set up a blog especially for my bookart. I will gradually build that up with additional info about previous bookart projects. Previous works have mainly been accordion format apart from one that had papier mache shoes and a scroll.
There were so many trials and tribulations that I had to go through in order to make these works. Although I am aware that my craft skills in book making still have much room for improvement despite immense effort on my part
I was none the less quite pleased with the final 15 books. So far, I have received four of the other participants books......................I can not say that much more for now. Our project is going to be on exhibition at Impact 7, the printmakers conference being held on this occasion in Melbourne Australia - if you happen to be in the neighbourhood pop in and if you go along to see thta exhibition - there are loads of them on their program - take a photo and email it to me.
References:
BookArtObject Website : http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/
Impact 7, International Printmaking Conference: http://impact7.org.au/exhibitions/index.html
So sad to learn about Toby, Aine. Yes, it is always difficult, but over time the memories soften the loss.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the other BAO group so will have to rely on photos to "see" you book, but this hint looks good.
Hi Aine,
ReplyDeleteYou may know from the BAO blog that I've been at Impact in Melbourne this week. I had a very quick opportunity to look at your book before it was locked away in the glass vitrine and I wanted to tell you how much I love it. I have longed to see your work "in the real" for ages and I am absolutely thrilled that I am going to own one.
My book for you is printed but just needs assembly so hopefully I'll be able to post it off in a few weeks time, after I get back home and recover from the excitement etc of Impact. Best Wishes!