Alex McCord Grieves The Loss Of Her Cat; Simon van Kempen Almost Gave His Baby His First Facial

MSNBC.com:

Former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Alex McCord took to Facebook Wednesday to share the news that her family’s beloved cat Madge died after being hit by a car. The caption of the photo she posted read, “We buried our beloved Madge cat today; she was hit by a car this morning. Rest in peace, big beautiful kitty...we miss you so much already.”

Madge had managed to get out of the house yesterday and up the street, where she was hit close to the house. McCord lives on a street with a block association so her neighbors found the cat and sent out an email describing Madge. McCord told TODAY.com, “We were so moved that our neighbors would do that; it was so lovely of them. We were able to get her body back so the boys and our other cat could say goodbye.”

McCord said grieving Madge will be a process, and it’s the first time her boys, who are six and eight, have dealt with any kind of loss. She also looked up resources on cat grief, since she’d had a cat before that had gone to the vet and never come back, which left the cat at home searching for the one that had gone missing. 

Madge and the other cat, Erin, were not friendly but were “feuding buddies,” McCord said. “They kind of had a love/hate relationship.” McCord’s research said that if a cat has died and the body isn’t destroyed or contagious let the other cat see the one who has passed so it can say goodbye.

“We had Madge’s body in a basket with a towel and we let Erin into the room. She sniffed her, prodded her a little with her paw and jumped as though she’d been spooked...then she went out into the backyard, vomited and let out a howl we’d never heard her make before...she’s been a little erratic, but the whole house has been.”

McCord’s boys also had a chance to say goodbye. Her eight-year-old was instantly emotional while her six-year-old “didn’t want to let it in for a little while and then it suddenly hit him.” The boys each took time to pet Madge and look at her.

“We were lucky that although she was hit by a car she was in almost perfect condition. We talked about how she looked just like she always looked but she was different because she wasn’t alive anymore. They each wrote her a little note which we put in a box we buried her in and put a marker above her grave.”

McCord remembers Madge as the cat with so much personality she’d take on the cameras when they were filming “Housewives” and would lay down on her back in the middle of the floor when they had company. 

The picture McCord posted on Facebook is of Madge wearing her scarf. “I had just gotten home and was saying hello to her. She was biting the edge of the scarf and trying to pull it off my neck so I finally said, ‘Oh do you wanna wear it?’ I took it off and put it on her and she was just so happy. It looked much better on her than it did on me.”

The cat was well-known by McCord's Facebook and Twitter followers. McCord often tweeted about Madge and posted photos.

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