This is the 57th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers and stories of hope.
An acquaintance once asked, while my mother was alive and living with me, “Have you got her a toy cat yet?”
Reading my expression as one of incomprehension, she elaborated: “You know, a teddy-bear cat, something she can pet?”
A toy cat?
“My mother’s on her fourth,” she said. “She strokes them until their fur falls out. When they’re bald, we just buy her another one.”
I did not appreciate what she was talking about at the time. But as the months went on and dementia claimed more of my mother, I was able to see the potential value of a toy cat.