For the second part of our holiday we travelled to Kimberley to visit my In-Laws. It was an 8 hour drive from Ballito and not so nice to go from summery weather back into the freezing cold.

About 4 days before we were due to return home, I got an sms from my Mom, who looked after our cats, saying that Charlie wasn’t doing so well. Within a few hours another sms saying that she’s taking him to the vet. He had, what one can call in simple terms, kidney stones and was in a great deal of pain. They had to take him in immediately for an operation to remove the blockages from his bladder and he was due to stay in hospital for 2-3 days. We were very worried and being so far away from them, there wasn’t much we could do. We were constantly phoning to hear how he was doing and was so happy to see him doing well again when we got back. He’s now on a special diet to prevent this from happening again. These are some photos of the my Father-in-laws’ farm, which we visited while we were away. It is also where we found Charlie in May 2009.

First photos (taken with phone camera 2009) of Charlie. He was one of the stray cats living on the farm and was very small, malnourished & looked half-dead when we found him in the veldt. Was in hospital for 2 weeks to re-hydrate

Just a month and a half later – already taking over my office chair

His scar after having a drip in hospital

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