Oh bless, I knew for many years that we were thinking about emigrating so when my last little baby passed aged 16, I made the decision to not put myself through it any more, she was called Missy as well and I know that she would have hated the heat here. Also cats in Australia and not allowed to come off of your property, that means that 99% of cats are kept in the house and never see the sky - your Missy is used to being out and about and you just could not do that to her. I know just you are feeling, don't be down, you are doing the very best you can for her, finding her a wonderful new home and the trauma of that is far less than a 24 hour flight, all that heat, quarantine etc., THAT in my mind would be crueller to a sensitive poppet like your cat - anyone who loves animals as you obviously do will certainly understand your decision and back you all the way - I most certainly do.

We also left our much loved cat with a close friend when we left. unfortunately he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and had to be put to sleep 6 months after we left BUT boy did that cat have a good life! he wouldnt have coped with the move. only thingvthat stops me getting another is that Biscuit (out ginger tom) is irreplaceable xx

thats so sad I'm so sorry.

Our first cat Ebony - (Eboneezer-good-girl/ Sheeza good/ Neezer) Was very much my cat, she disliked the children, and boy would we get guilt tripped if we even dare have a kids part for them, and you wouldn't see her bum fluff for dust til all the other kids had gone home. We got her from a rescue centre too, she tolerated my husband at best as he occasionally fed her LOL. We always arranged for a friend or family to look after her when we went on holidays, and she much preferred that but we'd then get her do the houdini act when we we'd get back - it's as if she was saying you think you're the only one that can disappear off for days at a time do you ?? this is what its like. except the last time she did that when she eventually returned she was very ill to begin with I thought maybe she'd been shot? she had a nasty oozing wound on her head the vets gaave us like a sline solution but said they couldn't find a bullet but to keep bathing it and keep clean as poss. Then the other side of her face swelled up almost forcing her eye shut, she rapidly got worse, lumps seemed to start appearing all over her and I was resorted to hand feeding her 3 times a day - which was the only way she would eat anything. When she tried to walk she wobbled and then refused to eat or drink full stop, the vets said they could run tests but being a Friday they wouldn't be back til the following week and she was in an awful state the day we took her in, they said they felt sure it was cancer, broke my heart stroking her as she went to sleep, worse was she'd been suffering the last 2 - 3 weeks while we held out hope of a miracle.
We had her ashes put into a little wooden cat, and I never thought I could ever have another cat it hurt so much .

But many months later I was still upset about losing her, hubby who isn't much of a cat person at all said 'the reason why we got her was to give her a good home get her out of the rescue centre, which we did as best we could and we think she was happy for the 5 years we had her, when she thought no one was watching she'd even play with crickets in the garden or the cat balls that she would try so hard to show she didn't care for, he pursuaded me to go back to the same place - our youngest son was at the time about 7-8 months old. I never thought I would be leaving with a cat, I was at the time humouring him, no other cat could be Ebony and all I wanted was to have her back!

Then we entered the cat run of a shy little cat, who'd been dumped at their gates with her litter of kittens, the kittens had all been re-homed and she had been neutered just the morning before, the three of us trapsed in and sat on her bench and chatted, I was telling hubby I didn't want to see any more cats and that we should go home after this one, when Missy jumped on my lap - in order to investigate the chunky child we'd brought in to her run, our son giggled and she started purring and nudging her head against his hand - much to his delight.
My husband turned to me and said - a family cat would be lovely this time round wouldn't it? The lady said - you can take her home now if you want to??? I found myself doing that err errr errrrr errrrr errr noise when my husband said - well there's a pet shop down the road I could go and see if they have any cat carriers? And before I knew it I'd been left there with the woman who ran the rescue centre. She could see I was hesistant, I explained about Ebony, then she told me about the cats she had live with her. She said you know when you can open your heart to another cat or another animal or if you can't, grief is hard but by bringing another cat into your family you don't love Ebony any less, Missy would never walk in her paw prints, she walks in her own, you may find similarities but they are all different just as people are.
Something about what she said made me think it was ok, we never looked back, when we got her home that first day, I went to make tea when a very excited hubby called me into the lounge urgently.
There was our youngest son, rolling a roll-a-round ball to Missy who was patting it back - that game lasted for nearly half an hour with brief pauses for giggles from our son and an upside down purring Missy. In fact she often slept like that for weeks after she came to us. Often she would be found embroiled in one of the kids games, or interupting it for fuss - like when the older two were playing a game of pool and she was potting the balls and then stretched out on the table.
She changed a little and became much more sedate and less playful when 2 years later she was run over, her tail had to be amputated the lovely tip of her tail which had looked like it had been dipped into a paint pot! She lost a lot of her kitten-ness and became a bit more of a refined lady more happy to watch the kids play than join in or climb into the box or bag of which the toys came out of.
Each trip to the vets has been an event, thankfully other than jabs and her tail she's been a very healthy girl as she detests the cat carrier and cries the whole time, and though the vets is only 5 minutes by car, half hour or so by foot, she slobbering and panting by the time we get there! When we get back home she then goes and hides, normally under one of the kids beds in a huff.
She LOVES my daughter, and is often caught trying to hide up in her room, my daughter likewise adores her - and I'm dreading trying to explain to my wiser than 3 year old why she's not coming with us - that will be one of the worst days of my life.
I have a million more memories and probably a million more than that, everyday there's memories, just like with the children.

It would be very easy for me to say - thats it I'm taking her - I have done that twice in the last few weeks, but then I start feeling horrendously guilty, that the state she gets in just going to the vets would be more than a hundred times worse being put in a cattery, then flown thousands of miles, then in another cattery for a month before being picked up, I would happily spent the money on her getting out there if I thought she could manage it.
But then there's the other side to it as my beloved Missy (Mish-ka) has for many years been used to going out as and when she likes and here the whole housing estate is her playground, it's only through following us she ventures further than a few houses this way or that, but many people think she's another dog, she trots on beside us until we get past the housing estate at which point she goes into the bushes and waits for us to come back, or she'll go home and wait on the wall next to the house.
She was hugely distressed when we moved into this house in 2010, she pooed in the house despite having a litter tray, she cried, after 2 weeks we let her out, but she kept going awol, they were still building here then... She hated it, but I believed if we persevered shed come good and she did, though she lost weight and we think some of the kids on the community housing had been mean to her as even now she flinches initially when you go to stroke her.

The lady she is going to has visiting grandchildren, my friends daughters, and 3 other cats, they live in a converted barn surrounded by fields away from the main roads, she's a retired lady and the world revolves around those cats. My friend sees her most weeks so will be able to update me regularly.

I'm not even thinking of acquiring another animal, we have to get our dog out there first, who will be staying with my mum who runs a holidays for dogs company in Lincoln, until we get settled and then she will be flown out to us. She had spent all her life until we got her in kennels and it didn't phase her she's a sook and happy go lucky sort who isn't bothered being in the car, quite enjoys the vets and treated it like home when we had her spayed. We have no BIG concerns about her.

I won't say I will never have another cat, never say never, but definately not for the foreseeable future.

What a wonderful, sometimes sad, cupboard of memories you will be bringing with you - you have to do what YOU feel is right for her because nobody else has that knowledge. Our Missy (Missy Moo/real name Mystie) was a feral cat who never ever went outside because she was such a scaredy cat the first thing would have her running for the hills and we would never have seen her again but the heat would have killed her, when it was hot I would sit with an ice block in a towel and she would lay on my lap whilst I stroked her with it - purring her little head off, I could not have done that 24/7 during the summer here and the winter probably would not have been much better for her.

Perhaps you should let the lady have her before you go so that you can have a couple of updates before you leave the UK, as maybe it would help you to know that she was settled into the household with the other cats and having the life of Riley?

We're hoping to move her over to this ladies house during the school holidays, not the best time but unfortunately my friends is quite busy up until then and having already asked around and then arranged with her mum to have her I can't ask her to cancel any plans in place for us. But will try and do it on a day when our daughter is at the childminders and see if my dad will have the boys. The lady is coming round for a meet and greet in a couple of weeks, mainly for my sake and a chat where I will most likely be biting my lip and picking a spot on the wall to stare at each time I go to cry like a baby!