Kitty...

A couple of months ago, a little black kitty showed up in Rob's workshop and fell in love with Rob's workbench. It decided that Rob's briefcase was one of the most comfortable things to sleep in (yes, I said "in"!). Rob & the boys (workers) decided since he was so black and he was taking up residence in the shop, his name should be "Oil". I didn't like that, but they continued to call him that, and Rob convinced Evan & Noah that this was a good name for him, too! Since nobody could really agree on a name that everyone liked, I just called him "Kitty". He was to be an outdoor-only kind of cat - I already have a dog & cat who live in the house and I'm allergic to both, so it's not a good idea to add in another cat! Of course, Rob kept giving me the guilt trip about how the poor thing would be too cold outside all by himself in the winter time, so he'd have to come inside! I kept saying, "I'll see what happens when winter arrives!"

A few weeks after Kitty arrived, I told Rob I didn't like how skinny he was, and that I didn't want a sick kitty around, especially with kids around. So, I took him to the vet. The vet said he probably had worms, so she gave him a pill to take care of that and then gave him his shots so he was all up to date. She also figured he was about a year old, so still just a kitten, really.

After our visit to the vet, he seemed to perk up a bit. He had a great appetite! We couldn't keep enough food in his dish! And he was a great hunter. He caught and ate mice and even a morning dove! (Absolutely gross, if you ask me!!!!)

Kitty seemed to be tired a lot, though. He'd lay around most of the time. But when you'd "visit" him, he was so friendly. He purred a lot, and he'd rub against your leg and let you pet him and he always tried to come into the house for a visit, too! Poor thing! Mean old me! I never let him in!!! LOL!

On Saturday, Kitty seemed to look a little more tired out than normal. We even saw him throw up a little bit. We just thought maybe he was warm, because Saturday was a pretty hot day. Then Sunday, Justin came running to me to go look at the cat. Poor thing had NO energy and his eyes were all runny and watery. I went inside and started to call the vets. I called ours first, and then proceeded to call every other vet in our area. None of them had emergency capabilities, and I would have had to take him to Brantford, for goodness sake. Well, we had company coming over, so none of that was an option. We prayed he would just make it through the night and then we'd take him to the vet first thing in the morning.

Monday morning came. Kitty was no where to be found. We searched and searched and searched. We'd leave it for a while and go back to the search. But no luck. Until around 1:30 in the afternoon, when Justin came yelling, "Kitty's back! Kitty's back!" So, I had him get the cat into the cat carrier as quick as possible (because he looked 100% worse than he did on Sunday). I took the kids to my mother's and then took the cat to the vet. They took a blood sample and tested it for a couple of really bad diseases, in hopes that if he didn't have one of them, that they could keep him overnight and pump the fluids and antibiotics into him and he'd start getting better.

The vet sent me home and told me she'd call me by 5pm. When she called, she told us the bad news. Kitty had feline leukemia. There was no hope for the wee thing, so he had to be put to sleep. It's crazy how we only had Kitty for a few months and he'd already won all of our hearts.

Noah just melted in my arms when I told him. I haven't heard him cry like that in a long time. It was such a sincere, painful cry. The poor wee soul. (Ya, I sound like my Nan when I say that!) Then there was Justin, who tried to be a tough guy and hold it all in. Till I told him he didn't have to be strong in front of me. Then he fell apart. He loves animals. Especially cats. He dotes on the cats all the time. He really took to "Oil" right from the start. Then there's Courtney, who's such a girl - she's just like her mother! She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed some more! Evan didn't get it. When I asked him if he understood why the other kids were so upset, he told me some 3 year old version of what he understood the rest of them to be saying. He asked me when Oil was going to come home from the doctor. When I explained it to him, that Oil was never going to come home, he had the most lost and despaired look on his face. He didn't cry, but his eyes were watery and his face was so sad.

Rob went to the vet office to pick up Kitty and bring him home to bury him. Then he wrote the name(s) on a cross that we'd had for our other cat that died a while back, and stuck it at the grave. Rob loves animals, too. It was harder on him than I think he wanted to let on, too! But he was strong for all of us. When Noah realized that the cat was in the hole, he broke down again, sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to me so tightly. Watching Noah like that brought a tear to Rob's eye.

So, we are now back to having 2 creatures in the family. Caspurr, our pure white house cat, and Pauley, our loving & great dog! We've had Caspurr just over a year. We've had Pauley about 8 years. I don't know what we'll do when she goes... if we were this upset over a cat we had for a couple of months, imagine a dog we've had for this many years!

Pets are pretty special.