Sometime in the late Summer of 2008 the year which my mother had died. I had finished another early turn at the Signal box which I worked in London and I thought Id pop into the Elham Village shop to buy some milk. I wondered whether I should as Alice probably had got some when she had finished her night turn but decided to pop in anyway. On buying the milk and walking out the store I noticed a board with some things advertised on it and noticed a note penned in ink advertising a Siberian Forrest Cat. I thought to myself ‘whats a Siberian Forrest Cat’ Alice had had cats before she met me , but the experience Id ever had with cats were not that good. I thought they all hated me as they always seemed to scratch me if I went near them. However when Alice got up from her sleep I asked her ‘whats a Siberian Forrest Cat’ and she said its like a Norwegian Forrest Cat but I said ‘whats a Norwegian Forest Cat and she said there big fluffy things. I said that the bungalow felt empty soulless since the dog had gone and ask what are they like to look after. Alice said that they look after their selves and wouldn’t be to much of a problem , (Famous last words) I asked her if she wanted to see the cat who lived at the time in a very nice area of Canterbury in the Dane John Park with a lovely lady called Gemma.We made an appointment to see the cat and arrived to be greeted by the nice lady called Gemma. She asked us to go into this big room where she then said she would try and find the cat , who’s name was Farley , and bring him in to see us. We had asked why she was rehoming him and she said he didn’t get on with her dogs and was also a house cat. After about fifteen minutes she said she couldn’t get him to come out of where ever he was , apparently in his dark place where he went to escape , so we were prepared to leave . All of a sudden theres a dark flash of movement that seemed to go under a sideboard which was in the room we were waiting. Gemma quickly shut the door telling us that the cat was now under the sideboard hiding. Gemma disappeared under the sideboard to try and retrieve the cat but he didn’t seemed to want to know. Alls I could see was Gemmas bum and legs the rest was wedge under the side board. She then came from under the side board and said if you want to come back another time that would be fine but I asked if I could have a look under the sideboard and she said yes if I wanted but it would be hard to see him. I had whispered to Alice if he scratches me Im out of it as Iv not had much luck with cats. I then on my stomach started slowly to disappear under this big low sideboard.I was pretty nervous as I didn’t know what to expect , cats didn’t really take to me in the experience that Id had with the ones I had met. However after a very careful crawl under this sideboard I looked around and couldn’t see anything then as I was about to give up I saw to of the biggest green eyes Iv ever seen staring at me from behind one of the legs of the side board. They seemed very gentle but clear beautiful eyes and I fell in love with that cat from there on.I said to Farley if he would like to come and live with us , of course expecting him to answer. I retrieved myself from under the side board and said to Alice I had seen him and he looked beautiful.Gemma said she would bring him over the following day and we could have him on a weeks trial if we wanted but I knew that we were not going to part with this beautiful Gentle Giant.Gemma gave us a list of what he liked , his food and Best Cat litter when and how she fed him. The most touching part of the note was that she said ‘ Please do not get angry at him and if you cant handle him please give him back to me’, This was the start of the best ten and a half years that I could possibly have imagined. As one women said to me ,’your life will never be the same again ‘, and she was dead right with that comment. I have to point out that me and this gentle giant bonded from the very start. I would say we were very very close and I loved him sitting next to me and with slightest of strokes he would be purring like a tractor. He gave us a lot of love and affection than I had expected coming from this Ex Stud, a Pedigree which at the time I didn’t know about only after reading his notes that came with Gemma.I was very lucky that he let me share his life with me and although he was put to his final sleep on the 31st December 2018 Im still having my crying moments and its the 16th of January and it will not be the last. I couldn’t imagine the pain when I was told that Farley may have to be put to sleep as I only went down the vets to get his teeth checked as he had gone off his biscuits a little but was eating his favourite wet food. Its like a surreal dream when the Vet suggested a blood test just to check everything but I wasn’t worried because Farley had had a blood test in October and all was well. He had also had a health check the week before and were told to our delight that his heart murmur had stabilised with the medication he was on. I waited half an hour for the results and went in cock a hoop and said ‘was everything ok’ but the vet looked at me and said that his kidney perimeters had gone through the roof and she then suggested euthanasia. I was devastated , this my boned friend which I had took down for his teeth and now Im being told that to put him to sleep would be an option. I asked if theirs anything they could do and are the results right. Well Farley went on a drip and we were told he would have to go to an out of hours hospital to complete a 48hr drip to see if that improves his kidneys. But when we went to collect him the vet then said that we wouldn’t be unkind if we put him to sleep. I said with a heavy heart that we would take him home for his last log fire , he loved the fire , but when we got home he was just like normal and on the following day I said to the vet at 830 pre booked time that Im not having Farley put to sleep he seems to be ok and was acting normal. He then went on the drip again for the stated 48 hrs as he should have done to see if the kidneys had improved. On the Sunday morning feeling very confident that all was going to be well we waited the half hour and another vet told us that they hadn’t improved and that he had a growth in his bladder. But thinking this cant be right , with in the course of three weeks our lovely Farley had gone from good to now being talked about being put down.I said that I wanted a second opinion with a vet I trusted who use to work at the same practice and asked for all the information to be sent to him where then we made an appointment to see this vet called Liam who had dealt with our other loving cat called Toby right till his final sleep. I was very optimistic but when we drove Farley there he was very quiet and I didn’t know what to expect. The vet Liam who is very kind and gentle in nature put it to us that Farley isn’t very well at all and the kindest thing would be to put him to sleep.I sake if we could take him home for New Years eve and another Log fire but he said he probably wasn’t up to that and felt that he was probably like somebody with a hangover the state his kidneys were in. We both agreed that there was nothing else that we could do for him and questioned why had he gone down so quick. We had tried everything for him and it was with deep deep sadness while stroking him and saying sorry to him he went into his final peaceful sleep.We brought him home and put him in our bedroom where he loved to lay on our bed with three of his toys. We went a dug a grave for him next to Toby and buried him in his favourite blanket and three of his toys , I had put him in like a stone surrounding and as today its been 16 days without intermittently crying. His Toys are as they would have been his water bowls are still down and his blankets are where they should be. I cant even move his sweeties which are in a draw which I used to get his heart tablet down him. So let me just say, I miss him because he was the first thing Id let get close to me. That may sound odd but believe me he was my big trusted gentle giant and I will not forget or stop thinking about him. Yes thats how close we were bonded form the very start. Well good night Farley I know you are now in no pain but it still dosent take mine away . Its nice to know that we are all just a blip in time. So to ( Kuzma ) His Russian Breeding name , to Farley our beautiful Gentle Giant Im so sorry to have to have you PTS. Goodnight and sleep well.

Thank you for setting up this memorial to Farley. We hope that you find it a positive experience developing the site and that it becomes a place of comfort and inspiration for you to visit whenever you want or need to.

May you find comfort In knowing you gave Your pet much love And a wonderful home...