My husband lost his job on Friday, through no fault of his own (I can’t go into the details on such a public forum: let’s just say that we felt it coming and we’re both angry and relieved that it’s over).
My husband has been worrying about my precarious mental health ever since – and he was right to do so. I suffer badly from depression and suicidal thoughts.
I decided to hobble over to the railway bridge up the road. I just wanted to jump. I’m probably too crippled to have made it that far, but I was going to try. I know that this was terribly selfish of me, but I can’t help what the depression does to me.
I got dressed, hobbled downstairs and opened the door… and there was Monty, my neighbour’s apricot Persian (that’s not him in the pic, but Monty looks very similar).
He was right outside my door, and he wouldn’t let me out. His humans weren’t home, and he wanted warm fuzzles. By the time he’d had enough, I had the clarity to realise that I didn’t really want to top myself, and so I texted my best friend – who came straight over (thank you, Alex).
So… we had our salad days, and a complete and utter twunt has taken them from us. But thank you, Monty, for preventing me from doing something that would hurt a lot of people
An Accident In Space And Time 
I’m glad you encountered the cat. You did really well to stay and pat him. Depression is hard. I don’t know how to say anything useful. Sorry about that. But I’m sending virtual hugs.
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Monty is very hard to ignore. Everybody who meets him falls in love with his beautiful fur and sweet nature.
He was a stray for two years after the neighbour who owned him kicked him out because she decided to get some sort of little yappy dog (she ended up with three of them, and left them in the garden to bark and cry at all hours, poor things) and he was terrified of the first one (as you would expect a cat to be if you have half a brain). As a neighbourhood we all did what we could for him. Until my neighbours’ elderly tom passed away nobody was in a position to take him in, so we kept an eye out for him and most didn’t mind if he came running into our homes from the rain or just needing love. I used to let him on my enclosed porch and feed him tuna, or just pick him up and give him the cuddles he so desperately craved.
A friend of mine has suggested that Monty was there to help me because cats know, and because I’d done all I could in the past to help him. I very much like to think that’s true 🙂
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