Two sad things happened this week

Regular readers will know the story of our two refuge cats Romulus and Remus. They did everything together and it was somehow fitting that fate had brought them into our lives. So it is with great sadness I have to tell your all that Romulus died of old-age last Thursday and that Remus was put to sleep by the vet this morning.

Romulus had been fading for a while now but wasn't unhappy or in pain so while that was true we didn't think anything needed to be done. Romulus went to bed at the normal time on Wednesday but died during the night. Poor old Remus then stopped eating and drinking and was so distressed that after talking to the vet it was agreed that the kind and merciful thing to do would be to have Remus put to sleep.

The two of them have been buried in our back garden, side by side in death as they were in life. They will be greatly missed.

Ella and I have received a number of homophobic emails this week that could only have come from readers of the Facebook group Motherless Daughters. I had previously complained about the actions of one Sandy Armstrong Angstadt and her small clique of supporters.

Although "the thread" has now been deleted I'm going to have to share the sadness I feel about the venom that some members of the group displayed towards other members. The guidelines for posting are perfectly clear - no personal attacks - but some very, very nasty personal attacks were posted and were allowed to remain on view for 12 hours or more.

Can the administrators confirm that those involved will not be allowed the opportunity to re-offend? The one place I never expected to find the playground bully and her fellow travellers allowed free reign was a bereavement support group.

My current view of Facebook represents so small a change to my previously published view that it would seem emptily repetitious to repeat most of it here. What I would say is that Facebook allows some extremely unpleasant people to bully others and it makes me sick to my stomach to read some of the posts the bullies put into the public domain.