our cat is dying...

My turn is coming. My Sparky Boy is 15 and has a tumor that, to be accurate, looks like he's growing (another) pair at the base of his sternum. He's still eating and drinking and hogging my bed two weeks after the diagnosis. But, when I asked the vet for the names of pet cemetaries near my home in Michigan, she looked me in the eye and said, "The ground will be too hard to bury him."

So he gets scratches and a lot of leeway, and I'm trying to gird myself for the day. I don't know if I'll get another dog, or another pet. But Sparky will always be in my heart.

 

you'll always be in sparky's, too. and, yes, he will stay in yours forever. i've spoken here of my dog 'skippy' often. i had her for only one year, then gave her up for adoption, a regret more than 32 years later... mrs. shockey and the stooges can testify i bring up 'skippy' all the time. an amazing hold these pets have on us...

 

We always had at least one cat in the housing growing up. Charlie was about 19 when he died. I was in sixth grade and remember crying while walking to school that day. At the time we had a second cat, Benny, we'd taken in while living in Louisiana. Benny was an outdoor cat we tried to convert to an indoor cat, not always with pretty results.
Shortly before we sold our house in Oregon 20+ years ago, our realtor accidentally let Benny out. We looked everywhere and couldn't find Benny. That night, we heard a cat screaming in pain across the street. We look out and see Benny on top of some neighbor's cat, going all Mike Tyson on the poor thing.
Our last cat, Marvin, died shortly after I got married. A few years earlier, back when my mom was still alive, Marvin bit into a poisonous rat. My mom said Marvin was killed by the poison. I was majorly bummed, as was my sister-in-law. A few weeks later I'm visiting my parents' home. As I go upstairs towards the living room, Marvin walks by nonchalantly. I couldn't believe my eyes. He didn't seem to understand why I was so glad to see him. Turns out my mom was exaggerating just a tad when she said Marvin was dead.

 

Sorry to hear, shock.

 

Damn Shockey, sorry to hear that. The last cat I lost, Bailey, was young but had kidney problems. That just killed me because he was such a kind cat.

If you're on the fence about adopting again, wait a little while but remember there are an unimaginable amount of little critters out there who are waiting for someone to love. And who want to ruin your carpets.

 

My mom always had her animals cremated. She has about 10 boxes in her house. She asked me one time if us kids will keep these after she's gone. She was taken back when we collectively declined. Goodness knows the only thing I can think of to do when she passes is have the boxes cremated with her....or take all the ashes collectively and sprinkle them at her house.

 

the stooges and even i, the non-cat person, is in favor of getting another kitty, 'cause we know mrs. shockey loves the kitty-kats. but she is insisting 'no way' on the grounds we're going to have to relocate by the summer of '13, after the youngest stooge graduates h.s., and she refuses to add a new kitty to our family without being sure kitties are allowed wherever we move.

i think she's being overly cautious here but maybe i'm wrong. do many condos or rentals really have 'no cats allowed' restrictions these days?

 

My sister's beloved Sheltie died two years ago this spring, a month or two after our Mom died (not a good stretch). She had him cremated and held on to his ashes. Understandable. But she brings the container upstairs to the bedroom every night. And every morning, when she and her husband wake up, she brings the container downstairs to the living room.

I love my sister very much, and loved her dog very much. But that is just weird.

 

BYH, do they have kids? I've found that the degree of grief is much more profound when people lose pets and they either don't have kids or it's an empty nest. My brother, married but with no kids, and I weren't close for years until he lost his German Shepherd before Christmas. He hardly knew my kids. But he was great with them during the holidays. I had a neighbor one time that had the empty nest and lost their inside dog at 17. They had to take off work for two days, it crushed them so bad. We actually took food over.

 

Yup, one son. He was obviously sad, and he ended up writing his first story for his first grade class about how he hopes his dog and his Grandma are playing fetch in heaven. (Yeah not a dry eye in any of our houses for that one). But this is my sister's doing. She was crazy attached to the dog. The running joke before she got married was that she wouldn't actually go on a honeymoon b/c she'd have to leave her dog. She did. Barely.

And two years later, when my wife and I got married, she left our wedding before it was officially over (like half an hour early, but still--i'M HER GODDAMN BROTHER) to catch a ferry back so she could pick up the dog from her friend's house. I am not kidding. A bridesmaid in her brother's wedding and she leaves early to see the dog.

 

shockey, I'm sorry to hear what you guys are going through. I apologize for not saying that earlier.

 

Sorry to hear this, Shockey.

(Sorry, too, that the add right under this "Quick Reply" box as I type is for a cremations services place. This Interwebs can be too damn clever for its own good.)

Our dog is doing a little better. Switched her to a holistic diet of some sort (Mrs. Williams' doing) and stress on her liver seems to be less. All a guessing game, because she can't tell us what's wrong with her.