Milo the Great. You stole our hearts from the beginning, that day we found you hiding under a car in the backstreets of Milos,tiny,frightened and in a pitiful state.
@cecilia.ccollins carried you round in a sun hat for the duration of the holiday while we fed you from a dropper, and somehow,by the time we had to leave,I had made one of my more impulsive promises: that we would find a way to bring you back to the UK. What sounded simple turned into 4 months of back-and-forth, endless red tape and substantial expense, before we finally returned in the depths of winter to bring you home.
It was always meant to be. You burrowed straight into our hearts : the most loving if demanding of companions. You weren't perfect, of course. Still a street cat at heart, you roamed the neighbourhood with your unmistakable gangster swagger., terrorising the other cats much to our dismay. But then you would slink back in, fix us with those bewitching green eyes and cast your spell all over again. .
When we left our London house we worried you might struggle to adapt to our new seaside home, but within days you were out sizing up the streets, a swashbuckling pirate with a glint in your eye. Scraps inevitably followed, though more often than not, you came off worse than before - not as young and nimble as you once were - though of course we politely pretended not to notice.
In the past year you cheated death twice: once in a skirmish with a car, and then a dramatic, bloody run-in with a fox. Both times the vet patched you up and, in true Milo fashion, you bounced back. We marvelled at your resilience though at 12 and a half the truth was you were hardly a youngster anymore. Then, just like that, a week ago, we found you, seemingly sleeping on the kitchen floor - and like a magician's vanishing act, pouf, you were gone. Elegant to the end.
And now there is a Milo-shaped hole where you should be. Demanding food on the hour, posing regally on the windowsill, lying on
@tonymcollins chest in the evening; or just gliding through the house in all your sunlit beauty and grace.
Milo you were truly magnificent. How lucky we were to find you that day. Rest well our beautiful boy. ❤️💫
