It's been a very emotional week in the Brown home this week.
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat Thomas.
He has been a part of our family for 6 years so saying goodbye wasn't easy.
It all started with Lauren having a really bad winter for the third year in a row.
She has had really severe respiratory problems and finally this year it twigged that maybe it was the cat.
Maybe, just maybe she was allergic.
Her asthma has been getting progressively worse (3 attacks this year which resulted in us having to visit the doctor) and she would be up all night with this horrible chesty cough.
Also Aaron's skin allergy has been getting worse to the point that he was having to take hayfever tablets every day. He has been tested and it came back positive for an allergy to cats and dogs.
And finally, my hayfever has been really bad and Ashleigh's too.
So I decided that maybe it was time for the cat to go.
Not only that but he has been really grumpy with the girls lately.
Lauren wouldn't leave him alone and even Ashleigh was picking him up all the time and driving him crazy. All I would hear was the cat meowing loudly which resulted in me screaming at the girls to "PUT THE CAT DOWN!!". It was all too much for me!
On top of all this, he was killing all of our gold fish and he'd start meowing at 5.30am EVERY MORNING!
So enough was enough!
I decided to call the RSPCA to see what my options were.
We'd tried advertising him in the local paper, put a flier up at the local shops and even advertised him in the Daily Telegraph but I didn't even get one phone call.
The RSPCA put my mind at ease - after explaining all of the above to them they said that maybe it would be best for everyone concerned (including the cat) that I brought him in. They don't have many cats at the moment so the liklihood of them finding him a home was high.
With this my heart rejoiced then came the question that threw me ...
"Can you bring him in tomorrow?"
Aaron was in Queensland and Mum and Dad are in the States so I'd have to do it on my own.
I decided that once I'd made up my mind he was going it was best to get it done quickly so I agreed.
So last Thursday I took him in to the RSPCA - he meowed the entire car ride over.
And to cut a long story short I was an absolute mess!
I was a basket case. I was trying so hard to hold back the tears as I was handing him over (I'm starting to cry now as I'm typing this) but I was just so upset.
I mean, he'd been part of our family for 6 years!
Anyway, it's still a bit raw - Ashleigh is only just now starting to go to sleep without crying herself to sleep.
She even wrote on her Christmas List "Thomas Back Please".
Talk about heartbreaking!
Anyway, Thomas, we hope you find a new home soon - someone who will love you and care for you as well as we did.
Here's the photo they have up on the RSPCA website:
