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Good-bye to an old friend

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by shotglass, Jan 16, 2007.

  1. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    My parents tried not to get another cat, on the grounds that it was too hard to lose the one they had.

    My brother and I looked at each other, waited a week and then brought home a snow white kitten.

    The house is awash in cat toys.
     
  2. Sorry to hear the bad news shot.
     
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Best wishes, shottie. My dogs show me more attention than my kids do, so I know how you feel.
     
  4. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Man, that sucks.

    As I read this thread, my cats chased each other thru the apartment. They're 9 and 7 and still get around really well (particularly the 9-year-old). The older one is incredibly active...loves to chase those stick things with feathers at the end and loves it when we flash a laser pointer around the room. I just took a rubber band from the youngest. She loves those. One time I found one in her, well, you know. Since then I go nuts when I see her with a rubber band.

    We got the older one within a month of moving in together. We got the younger one a little less than two years later. They're our constant companions. I can't fathom the thought of the day when they're no longer racing to the door to greet us.

    Cats are the best and most loyal friends a man can have. My heartfelt condolences to you, Shottie.
     
  5. Sxysprtswrtr

    Sxysprtswrtr Active Member

    Sorry to hear the news Shot ...

    As I type this, my cat is on my lap, with her head nestled on my arm and with each peck of the keyboard, her face bobbles up and then down. It's kinda funny. Cats are great, despite the fact mine likes to climb the wall - really, she does.

    Thoughts are with you and Mrs. Shotglass.
    Hugs!
     
  6. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    Like Moddy said the other day, there are threads on here every once in a while that make you realize how much you like the vast majority of people here.

    Thanks, everyone.
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Sorry for your loss, Shot.

    Our cat Gus died three years ago at age 20 (human years). He had been my wife's cat, and when we started living together the cat and I bonded over nocturnal schedules and post-midnight carnivorous snacks. A few feedings of rare roast beef and Gus decided I could stay.

    He had been an indoor, city cat his entire life until we moved to the suburbs. He took his first tentative steps outdoors and quickly looked forward to his twice-weekly prowls. There was an abandoned hotel nearby, and I knew if we needed to find him, he would be in the hotel's basement hunting God knows what. The hotel was demolished and turned into a parking lot, and when he died, we had him cremated and scattered his ashes there. We go visit sometimes. We know his ashes scattered with the wind, but I believe if his spirit lives anywhere it lives there, where he first found his wild-cat freedom.

    Gus was diagnosed with cancer and we made the hard decision to go ahead with the surgery, and he had two very happy years before age caught up with him. He died on my wife's lap as we drove to a 24-hour animal hospital to have him put down. Probably we should have done that sooner, but the cat never stopped enjoying his food or playing with the other cat we adopted from a friend about a year before Gus' death. Even as he became frail he was the dominant cat. In the dining room we have a painting of Gus by my mother-in-law, now also dead. It is a good remembrance of both.
     
  8. I love this board.
    We can put aside our dickwaddishness and douchenozzling and mourn together.
    Condolences, shots, and my sympathy to the codas, who are bearing up well.
     
  9. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    Very sad news. Losing a pet is an awful feeling, so my sympathies go out to you.
     
  10. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    That's a great story, Frank.

    The cat my sister and I had as kids died in 1996 at 15. My sister couldn't bring herself to come back home from college to say goodbye (she was only an hour away). The cat's kidneys were failing and she was brought back from the edge of death in the summer of '96. The vet said the next time would be it, so we had a few months with her in which she showed a little of her old spark before she went downhill in a hurry.

    I caught her in my room peeing one night, picked her up and heard a sad wail. I knew that was it. A few days later, she could barely bend her legs. She'd walk around and around in a circle looking to settle. When she finally laid down, she sighed. About the saddest sound I've ever heard.

    We took her to the vet, he tried to cure her for a few days before he called and said this was it. My mom and I went out to say goodbye. The poor thing was skin and bones, but at least we got to see her. We couldn't even handle the concept of being there when the lethal injection was administered.

    A week later, we got a condolence card from the vet. As wonderful as a cat is, a good vet is even better. My parents found a great one and my wife and I are very lucky here to have a great one.

    My sister still has a great picture of our cat sitting on a rock at our parents house. Every time I go to see my sister, I try to make sure I see that picture.

    And I won't even re-tell the story of how my dad found a stray kitten near death in an abandoned house when I was 13 and how we brought her home and raised a hellion...until she was run over a few months later. Not good times.
     
  11. Highway 101

    Highway 101 Active Member

    Shotty,

    Here's another fella who can sympathize. My sincere condolances.

    I got my my cat, Banner, from the SPCA when I was about three. Every time I got sent to my room for who knows what, or had a temper-tantrum, or got strep throat, she always climbed up on my belly and took a little nap.

    She wasn't a big fan of the puppy we got when I was in high school, yet she held her ground and told the Corgi that this, "is my house."

    My departure to college across the country sent Banner into a tailspin. Granted she was 15, she couldn't handle life without me. I came back home for Christmas break my freshman year and she in the four months away she went from middle-aged enthusiasm to an old fowler. I said, "Goodbye" before flying out.

    She fought for a month, then passed. She's buried in the flower bed behind the house. She used to love catching mockingbirds snacking at the birdfeeders posted there.

    All the best.
     
  12. OTD

    OTD Well-Known Member

    Shot, I'm sorry to hear about Smokey. I got a rescued cat in college and she lived 20 years. I didn't think I'd get all weepy when she had to be put down, but I did.

    A few days later, we got something from the vet. I figured it was the bill for the services--she'd been there a couple days before the vet said it was time to give up, and I'm sure we'd run up a couple hundred dollars worth.

    Instead, it was a card with the Rainbow Bridge poem on it. No bill ever came. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

    Hang in there, Shot.
     
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