Cardigan and Sleeves

When we bought our little house ten years ago, the back garden was an astonishing weed patch. The yard was choked with vines, and it was almost impossible to get from one side to the other.  The elderly lady from whom we bought the place did not have the energy to tend her tiny garden, and so it became an overgrown wilderness and a haven for wild creatures.

The two most charismatic denizens of our yard were two shy feral cats who never left each other’s side. They would flee if we tried to approach them. They wanted nothing to do with us.

I told Robb that I was determined to befriend them, and he acted like I was delusional.







Quiet patience, tenacity, and a whole lot of food did the trick. It took several long years to earn the trust of these two feral brothers who we called Cardigan and Sleeves.

I’ll never forget the first time Cardigan reached out to touch me with his paw. I didn’t dare breathe, for fear of startling him.

At first, we left food outside for the feral cats. Then Robb started worrying about them being cold in the winter, so we let them sleep in our laundry room.

Robb worried about them getting wet in the rainy season.  So he built them a house in the back yard.

I took lots of undignified photos of them enjoying their Little House.

Little by little, they came to trust us, and started venturing indoors. Our sweet housecat Linguine — a former barn cat, herself — acted like a duchess might to her poor relations. She invited them to stay, but remained the Grande Dame.

Time passed. Cardigan and Sleeves began to act like housecats. I found a terribly injured kitten in the gutter, spent a huge amount of love and money on its recovery, and named it Smog. Smog lacked any understanding of Cat Manners. While he was recovering, Cardigan and Sleeves served as reluctant uncles. Linguine put on her best Noblesse Oblige act, mostly pretending Smog wasn’t annoying her. Smog made a full recovery. And over time, Linguine succumbed to kidney and liver failure.

Cardigan and Sleeves remained inseparable. Along with Smog, they enjoyed a remarkably happy existence.

And now, quite suddenly, Cardigan is gravely ill. He’s experiencing kidney failure and is at the animal hospital.  We don’t know if he’ll survive the next two days.

I'm so overwhelmingly sad.