I want to like you... - In the name of Thiago - Day 95

To begin with, today’s blog will be about my cat Jack. It’s fair to say that I haven’t always seen eye to eye with the little shit but if nothing else I am an open-minded fellow these days and am prepared to accept that I don’t always get it right first time.

Jack came into our lives well before Thiago did courtesy of a ‘trial’ run, which only came about because friends of ours had another cat called Moshy, who didn’t get on at all well with each other. Yeah right trial. “We’ll see how it goes” said Angelica and if it doesn’t work out he can always go back to Lee and Michelle.

Okay I thought, we already know that they want rid. After a day or two we’ll probably start getting reports of how much happier Moshy is and within three or four, Elisa will start making that whiny voice accompanied with “please Daddy can we have him, please, he’s so cute.”

All of the above happened and by day five I was simply negotiating what I might be able to get for going along with this dreadful new life event – maybe a Spurs game as they were good in those days – other than a shitload of cat food as a parting gesture from Lee and Michelle.

I’ve just never liked cats and I suspect that stems from the fact that when I grew up we only ever had dogs. Two belters they were really: a Welsh springer spaniel called Tilly, which I quite literally grew up with, and a mad border collie called Pippa. Tell a lie, my brother also had a guinea pig which he called shit.

Ah Jack, I’m comfortably tolerating him these days though it never ceases to amaze me how often he walks into the kitchen at precisely the moment I’m turning round and starting to walk forwards culminating in me booting him in the jacksie. He just seems to effortlessly be in the way whenever I see him. I daresay he thinks the same of me!

I normally write my blog before Angelica gets home from our shift as that’s never before 8.30pm, (did I mention she leaves the house at 6.30am), but I’m glad I didn’t today as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to share this picture with you.

She is finding it very tough on the unit at the moment as the number of seriously ill patients just increases by the day. Even someone as resilient as she is and has had to be, especially since we lost our little man in November, has a breaking point. I am doing my very best to support her while we are still both in the very early stages of grief and I won’t lie, it’s a fucking nightmare at times. Except that you wake up from nightmares of course.

Anyway back to the photo. The gifts pictured were yet another show of appreciation of the job that she’s doing on the Covid-19 ward at Royal Stoke University Hospital, which I am of course still fundraising hard for. Angelica just said to me tonight that she's just doing what she always does. Yes my love, but in a time of national crisis when you’re grieving for the loss of our son. She really is incredible.

As for the cat, he’s a little shit.