Happy Christmas

William's Birth Day

Welcome to our precious little 'bean'. William John Albion Shaddick arrived at 2.18pm weighing 7lbs 6oz.

'Bean' the Bump

Christmas Snow

The huge dump of snow that preceeded the big freeze that gave us our first white Christmas! (and the reason for Will's 2nd middle name, Albion)

Early morning

Had to get up early today to get Harry down to the village by 7.30am. He has been chosen with a few other classmates to represent Georgeham school at a big music event in Exeter. He is going to play the ukulele with Georgeham and joined by lots of schools in the South West, is going to try and break the world record for the most amount of ukuleles being played at one time. Good luck Harry!

As we were up so early, James and I zoomed over to our lovely friend Sarah's house in Upcott and walked to school with her and her girls. It was such a lovely sunny warm morning and we both enjoyed the walk immensly. The hedgerows were full of wildflowers, there were lots of insects, butterflies and birds to see and talk about. The children skipped, marched and sang - what a perfect way to start the day!

Goodbye Max...

A sad day today. Max our cat (who has had a heart murmour for the past 2 years) suddenly became ill on Wednesday evening with difficulty breathing. We took him to the vets that evening and were told that the outlook was not good, but there were a few things we could try. He had a diaretic injection and went home with some more pills for this and were told to come back the next day.

He was no better in the morning so back we went. We had to leave him for the day so that they could xray his chest to check for fluid on his lungs and also to give him a kidney function test. His kidneys looked fine, so they spent the day giving him high dose diaretic injections.

We picked him up the next day, but when he was home, he really wasn't any better and was struggling to breathe and even move. He had lots of cuddles that night, but in the morning, it was clear he wasn't going to improve and looked so poorly.

My Mum came with me as we took him down to the vets for the last time, mindful that we may not bring him home alive again. The boys said a tearful goodbye.

The vet said that there wasn't anything else we could try and we all agreed that he had suffered for long enough and didn't want him to die in pain so made the hardest decision of my life. Max was put to sleep at 12.45pm with me cuddling him whilst he purred.

He looked so peaceful when he was gone and although I was really very distraught, I knew we had done the right thing. We took him home and buried him alongside his sister, Tiggy, in my Mum's garden. We laid a bunch of wildflowers on his grave and sung him "All things bright and beautiful".

Rest in peace Max, thank you for 13 years of friendly companionship. I shall miss you most terribly.