25 May 2012 - 7 July 2013
This page is about Floyd, a gorgeous smoke grey pedigree Maine Coon. This puss was a strongly featured Maine Coon.
Tracy saw his photo on the Lilynocket website, and as a family we couldn't really decide on which cat to have. Two of us preferred 'Winston' and Two of us preferred 'Floyd'. There was a queue, with another family having first choice over the kitten. They chose Winston, so we had Floyd. This suited my youngest duaghter as she fell in love with Floyd at first sight - when we visited Floyed climbed on her lap and stayed there for the whole visit.
A week after picking up Ozzie, Floyd reached his 3 months old and we picked him up. Despite Floyd being three weeks younger, Ozzie was much the smaller kitten, and Floyd was instantly boss kitten. None the less they got on beautifully and they quickly became good friends.
Now, we had coped with two kittens, Squeaky and then Gryff a few years later. Neither experience prepared us for the chaos two kittens caused. The house was bedlam for months on end as the two kittens chased after everything, climbed everything, chewed everything, ate everything and played with everything. We were exhausted. Floyd was more of a serious kitten than Ozzie, but none the less loved playing.
Floyd was much more of a 'normal' cat than Ozzie, being less dependant on human company, but none the less he enjoyed being near us in the garden. A bit like Gryff, he muttered to himself while outside and gave a Maine Coon-like chirp of welcome when he saw you. That's not to say he wasn't without his quirks. He DID NOT like usung dirt trays when going poo. His preference was the lino floor of the kitchen. YUK!!!
As he got older, Floyd grew rapidly. We think he was bigger than Gryff, and he was going to be HUGE. A beautiful grey, with a stubborn chin and a wonderful leonine head. His tail was a beautiful fan held low like a big cat's, rather like a lion or leopard. He hunted too. As he reached a year old we started finding fragments of rabbit in the garden near the back of the house. It was Floyd. He had crossed the road in front of our house (over the 6ft high fence in one easy bound) and was steadily de-populating the rabbit warren in the fields over the road. He started small, and after a month had got up to full size rabbits. He brought them home while still alive and ate them in the garden. I was priviledged to see him chasing down an escaped rabbit. He was absolutely magnificent in the way he ran, tail low, wide paws spread, apparently running in slow motion yet rapidly catching up with a rabbit. As the rabbit made terrified jinks, he could turn on a single paw, going through 135 degrees in a single pawfall. The end for the rabbit was inevitable, but was a magnificent chase. His huge jaws (3/4" canine teeth) and claws (same size) finished the rabbit so easily.
Floyd adored my youngest daughter. He would drape himself over her lap - he was way too big to be confined to just the one lap, but was just so gentle with her. He could so easily have taken her face off with a single swipe of a massive (2") front paw, but he never hurt her.
Floyd's end was a horrible shock. A terrible accident. He was lying on the living room floor when I got home from work, then asked to go into the garden. We let him out, having no inkling of the future. Five minutes later there was a knock on the door. A car driver had seen the accident. Floyd had jumped the fence, intent on having a nibble in the rabbit warren, and crossed the rush-hour road oblivious to the traffic. He was hit by the car, who had been within the speed limit, on his magnificent head. His only apparent injury being a trickle of blood from his nose. He died before we got to the vet's. I still weep when I remember it, despite the fact I want only to remember Floyd in his glory.
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