On New Years Day, 2009, we our loving cat baby passed away. She was a great pet and family member to us and to our twins. Of our four cats, she was the one that played with and allowed the twins to play with her.
It was hard to see her go as it happened so fast, Christmas she was fine and then the she started having issues jumping onto the bed and getting around our baby gates. Then on New Years Eve, we noticed that she was not eating or drinking. We tried to feed her, but she would not take it. By New Year’s Day, she was not wanting to move and was having trouble breathing. We debated taking her to the vet, but decided the trauma of the car ride and the strange doctors would cause her more pain. So we held her and left her in peace until she went to sleep just after midnight 1/2/2009.
Baby had been with Dana for over 15 years, moving from Georgia to Tennessee and back, with several moves in between. She was Dana’s friend and companion during this time away from family and friends. Once we married she became my cat as well and would sleep with us on most nights, even nipping at our toes if we moved them under the sheets.
During the day, she would come into my home-office and sleep on our router, she would love the heat from it, to the point where we had to replace the router, because she over heated it. If she was not there, she was in her bed under my office window. She never got too far away from us.
After we had the twins, she was the only cat that would tolerate the kids. In turn the girls loved her for it and she got all the loving her could handle from an infant. In some cases too much loving. Now that she is gone, both girls are having a hard time understanding where she has gone. They are sad that they don’t get to pet the nice kitty.
Some of the nice stories that we could tell about her:
•She loved to play with craft balls. You could hear her carrying it around making the oddest sounds.
•She would nip at your toes if you moved them under the sheets at night. This was quite the surprise the first time she did it to me, even after being warned.
•She loved being with our girls and would even try to sleep with them.
•We loved how she would “go in heat” even though she was fixed, all because she saw the loving the other cats got when they went in heat. Hers would start about a week afterwards.
•Regardless of what you were doing, she had to be in your lap, she never missed an opportunity to get some loving.
•She would play fetch with her craft ball, just like a dog. She would want to play longer than we could.
•For me, I can remember her as my comfort during the time when I had Kidney Stones. She would let me hold her and carry her around, while I was in pain. This was a great comfort to me, as she knew something was wrong.
I could go on and on about her and what fun things she would do.
Now that she is in Kitty Heaven, and it hasn’t even been a day since she passed, we miss her terribly, but know she is in a better place. But I know I will always see her sitting on our router in my office or wanting under the covers of our bed at night. Of note, she made a great heater in the winter for warming the cold toes.
We will miss our Baby, but we know she lived a great life, and that she will not be forgotten.
