Gizzy

I am a new writer but not a new reader I have lurked on these pages for a couple of years now. I have always had an interest in the paranormal but just never submitted a story. I have a few stories to share of strange happenings but thought I would start with the first which explains my username.

Gizzy (Gizmo) had a hard start in life. I had received a phone call in the morning from my sister in law asking whether I wanted a kitten. I said no as I was living in a 1 bedroomed flat with an aged dog already and very little money. That evening I received another call from my sister in law saying that all the kittens were dead apart from one as the people who owned the cat had a family dog which they had starved and it had followed its natural survival instincts and killed the kittens for food.

Of course being the soppy mare that I am I did not hesitate and said I would pick her up straight away. So she came to live with me and shredded my curtains and sofa and lived behind the cooker for the entire time I lived in the flat. A couple of years later my mum offered for me to move in with her in Chesterfield and I jumped at the chance taking my pets with me.

Gizzy loved it at my mums a huge garden to roam in and a life sized toy to play with (mum). She used to leap on my mum over the bannister if she was on her way downstairs and even one evening tried to heave a large suitcase off of her wardrobe onto her whilst she was laid in bed, mum said she was laid there listening to Gizzy grunting as she strained to push it off (something that really tickled me).

She had several brushes with death the 2 that most stick out are when she was a kitten she woke me up doing a wall of death round the kitchen as she had been in the bin and got a empty can stuck on her head. I caught her and took it off and cleaned her up and then it struck me as funny, which she was most offended by. The second time I had a knock at the door from a neighbour saying we had a cat on our roof. I just knew who that was and went tearing upstairs jumped on my housemates bed and leaned out of the attic window to see gizzy in the guttering meowing pitifully at me. Well I called her and surprisingly she put her back legs on the outside edge of the gutter pushed off and ran at me trusting me to catch her which I did then she preceded to take her temper out on me and run so I got back down to an unhappy housemate who I had woken up and took myself off to tend to my wounds.

The long and short of it is she lived 16 years with me was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism which we managed and then a couple of months ago I noticed she was drinking a lot so took her to the vets and tested her it all came back with good results. Well she did not stop drinking so much and then also went off her food so again I went back to the vets this time the news was not good she had tumours on both kidneys and they were shutting down. The option recommended was palliative care with special renal cat food which I tried. She went downhill really fast in only 3 days she was not eating at all and we had to rush her in and Euthanize her to put her out of her pain. Understandably I was devastated and could not eat or sleep, wondering whether I had done right by her and selfishly missing her funny little ways and adoration. On to the reason I have submitted this

Two nights later I was laid in bed wide awake as usual and asking my granddad if he could possibly take care of her and make sure she was ok (Granddad died when I was 16). I did not ask for a sign just hoped that asking was enough and finally dropped off to sleep. At about 5am in the morning I woke up needing to answer a call of nature and wandered downstairs to go to the toilet. Sat in the middle of the floor upright was a stuffed toy my brother had brought me for Christmas with the wording special friend on it.

It had been sat in a beer stein on the side where if it had dropped it would have fallen in the bin not fallen forward and 3 feet to the side to sit in my pathway to the loo.

Call me soppy and sentimental but I believe this was my granddad telling me he had it covered.

I know that this is not as dramatic or scary as a lot of the stories here but I wanted to share it as it helped me at a time I needed it.