Cecile Vargo
04-07-2005, 01:11 AM
I know this is a dog forum, but I believe we are all animal lovers, and I need to share my grief with others who understand. We had to put our longhaired white cat Missy to sleep this evening. It's been one thing after the other with her, and we had good days, and bad. All the tests and x-rays couldn't find anything wrong with her, we just did our best to treat whatever symptoms came up from one week to the next, and keep her comfortable and happy. But today she started gasping for breath and I had to rush her in to the emergency, in fact twice on the drive to the vets I thought she died, but she'd rise up again. They put her in an oxygen cage until Roger could get in from Woodland Hills - the longest 45 minutes I've ever had to wait - then we decided it best to put her down. She had a difficult time of it, even after they gave her the first shot to relax her and put her to sleep before euthanizing her. Thank goodness Roger was even in town! He's leaving for Sacramento early in the morning and I don't know how I could have gone through this without him. He would have regretted not being here, too. The cats are his babies, so it's really good he was here.
Missy was with us for almost exactly 5 years. She was a scraggly stray that we figured was about 2 years old when we found her or I should say when she found us. She lived under our birdbath when the weather was nice, or snuck in our garage when the weather was bad. She would get in my neighbors back yard and kill his goldfish, and I was afraid he was going to shoot her, so we finally took her inside to be apart of our family. She wanted to be a part of our family so badly, she would get on top of our old Blazer in the driveway so she could peer in the kitchen window and make us feel guilty that she was out there. Once I took her in and she had something more than birds and gold fish to eat, she became the beautiful long haired white cat she deserved to be. Not long after I took her in, we realized she had a brother or sister still running around out there that looked exactly like her.
But he was much more skiddish than she was. I used to see him kind of beat up around the neighborhood, but can't remember when I last saw him, and don't know what happened to him. Missy, however, became a cinderella story, and she was like a princess, with a comfy home and family to love her and spoil her rotten. She will sorely be missed.
My two tabby boys, Clarence & Quincy are walking around kind of lost without Missy. So it looks like I'll be spending a lot of time babying them, particularly when Roger is gone over the next few days. The dogs know we are upset, but I don't know if they realize Missy is gone or not, as she usually hid when I brought them in. Although the last two weeks she stood her ground, even when she didn't feel well, and didn't even let Maggie's big rambunctious presence bother her.
So it's sad around here tonight, and going to be a hard weekend with Roger gone, hard for him not to be here, and hard for me not to have him here, but I know that Missy is in a better place, and finally at peace. My first cats lived to be 19, so it's hard to understand when something like this happens to a cat so young. She seemed to come to us under mysterious circumstances, and leave just as mysteriously, in an all too short 5 years.
_________________
Cecile
"Well behaved women rarely make history" - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Missy was with us for almost exactly 5 years. She was a scraggly stray that we figured was about 2 years old when we found her or I should say when she found us. She lived under our birdbath when the weather was nice, or snuck in our garage when the weather was bad. She would get in my neighbors back yard and kill his goldfish, and I was afraid he was going to shoot her, so we finally took her inside to be apart of our family. She wanted to be a part of our family so badly, she would get on top of our old Blazer in the driveway so she could peer in the kitchen window and make us feel guilty that she was out there. Once I took her in and she had something more than birds and gold fish to eat, she became the beautiful long haired white cat she deserved to be. Not long after I took her in, we realized she had a brother or sister still running around out there that looked exactly like her.
But he was much more skiddish than she was. I used to see him kind of beat up around the neighborhood, but can't remember when I last saw him, and don't know what happened to him. Missy, however, became a cinderella story, and she was like a princess, with a comfy home and family to love her and spoil her rotten. She will sorely be missed.
My two tabby boys, Clarence & Quincy are walking around kind of lost without Missy. So it looks like I'll be spending a lot of time babying them, particularly when Roger is gone over the next few days. The dogs know we are upset, but I don't know if they realize Missy is gone or not, as she usually hid when I brought them in. Although the last two weeks she stood her ground, even when she didn't feel well, and didn't even let Maggie's big rambunctious presence bother her.
So it's sad around here tonight, and going to be a hard weekend with Roger gone, hard for him not to be here, and hard for me not to have him here, but I know that Missy is in a better place, and finally at peace. My first cats lived to be 19, so it's hard to understand when something like this happens to a cat so young. She seemed to come to us under mysterious circumstances, and leave just as mysteriously, in an all too short 5 years.
_________________
Cecile
"Well behaved women rarely make history" - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich