The following post is an archive of our GoFundMe campaign which began in 2020.
Hi everyone,
Initially I had planned to write an update about the farm being closed, how our season was and how great it felt celebrating our 40th anniversary together with you. But that will be in a later update.
Unfortunately, I’m about to share some sad news with you as our closing this year was overshadowed by a big loss of a very special farm resident. With a heavy heart and lots of tears we had to say goodbye to our senior farm cat Leo ”the Lion”.
Leo has lived for so many years at the farm, that we can’t really say if he was 16 or 17 years old – clearly for all of us he was an ever-constant presence at the farm. He was just always there with his big personality and plenty of opinions
- Acting grumpy when the weather was bad – and in his mind it was definitely always our fault
- Demanding his food on time – he always made us feel late
- Insisting on his share of our lunch – he ate rather strange things for a cat
- Asking for cuddles and giving head bumps – riding around on our shoulders
- Being a really good hunter and taking his job of rodent control very seriously
- Getting older and stubborn and finding it very hard to accept help that allowed him to be more comfortable
- Being always watchful, not missing a thing – except when he was sleeping off the night’s adventure?
- Looking gorgeous and simply being awesome
Leo has lived his life as he wanted – a free spirit with a lot of independence who knew where his safe home and people were.
Leo chose us as a feral, scared and testy kitten at first, then he learned to trust and to recognize the farm as his home – a place where he could belong and be loved forever. And the biggest honor he presented us with is that he allowed us as his humans into his life – he never entirely gave up his feral ways as a part of him remained ever alert, but he took his people into his trust and into his heart and that is a real privilege.
There might be many visitors who have never seen Leo during their farm visit, he could be secretive, always liked his privacy and like most cats followed his own agenda. I remember people asking about him and how special it was when they caught a glimpse of him – often taking a nap after his night shift.
We would have loved to keep Leo with us forever, but sadly this season his arthritis kept on getting worse and while he was monitored by our vets and he was on regular pain medication his ability to move around declined rapidly. Since we knew that the time to say goodbye with the approaching colder temperatures was creeping up quickly, we made his last summer at the farm and especially his last few weeks the best we possibly could. He had a warm and cozy building with soft beds overnight, lots of yummy food and for the daytime we still brought him out to keep an eye on “his” farm and watch everything around him. Leo was put down surrounded by his friends and we all shed lots of tears to pave his path over the rainbow bridge.
He will be forever missed by all of us – including his little cat companion, our youngster Elsie who has been rather out of sorts since his passing.
“Leo, our friend, thank you for this life that you have shared with us. We know you have eight more, so hopefully one of them brings you back to the farm – this will always be your home!”
Thank you for remembering Leo together with us.
Claudia
