<\/a>
\nI am sad to announce that after some 12 years of craziness, Turq’s wild run is likely to come to an end this week. He’s had feline leukemia<\/a> for nearly 3 years, and when he was diagnosed they only gave him a few weeks to live, yet here he still is. The leukemia, plus surviving being hit by a car a number of years ago (which included getting disoriented and lost and living rough for almost a month with a badly broken jaw before we were reunited), suggests that he’s used up all his nine lives and a few of Portia’s.<\/p>\n

It’s all catching up with him, though, and things have deteriorated to the point where we all agree that the time has come to put him to sleep, probably this week.<\/p>\n

Sniff.<\/p>\n

Turq was born almost the same time as Sub-Evil Boy<\/a> and they’ve spent pretty much their entire lives together. (We’ve got some amazingly<\/em> cute pictures of them together as baby and kitten.) It’ll be interesting see how Portia (who’s 2 years older than Turq) reacts to his absence. She’s been doing this weird stress thing where she sits and pulls out clumps of her hair and we don’t know why. Having this happen, as well as the chaos engendered by the bathroom remodelling (more on that later), may really freak her out. Hopefully not, though…<\/p>\n

In these last few years of his life there have been more than a few times where he’s been, well, pretty gross (chronic sinus infection and less than optimal personal hygiene), but he was always an amazing character in the best sense and our lives are all much richer for knowing him.<\/p>\n

We’re probably going to scatter his ashes in the yard where he spent many happy days lording over his domain. Sub-Evil is planning on inviting some friends over and we’ll make a proper ceremony of it. So raise a toast to our strange little friend.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sad to announce that after some 12 years of craziness, Turq’s wild run is likely to come to an end this week. He’s had feline leukemia for nearly 3 years, and when he was diagnosed they only gave him a few weeks to live, yet here he still is. The leukemia, plus surviving … Continue reading “The end is nigh for Turq”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-general"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-5l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/04\/01\/it-is-done\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":0},"title":"It is done","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Apr 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Well I feel like crying but you know the tears won't come down. That's from a wonderful Muddy Waters song (\"My home is the delta\"), but it smells like an old blues couplet to me. Regardless of its origin, it says a lot about the last few days. As mentioned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Just before leaving (4 of 4)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/51\/120152275_1bad5b067e_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":334,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/04\/01\/that-crazy-first-of-april-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":1},"title":"That crazy first of April thing","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Apr 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Sadly, the post about Turq was no April Fool's, but there's plenty of fine frivolity out there on the net for those so inclined. 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I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":153,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/05\/13\/in-memory-of-absent-friends\/","url_meta":{"origin":331,"position":3},"title":"In memory of absent friends","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"13 May 05","format":false,"excerpt":"Here at GPTP we're missing Bill Langdon, one of the brightest people in the field and one whose long term influence is hard to overstate. 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