My cat ran away...

[BYH]

My pop always thought she left to go out to die, their terms, their way, consistent with the rest of the animal kingdom, etc. I would rather that than watch the favorite pet of my life wheeze and suffer and seek refuge and go to die under a table, dying of kidney disease, going from 12 pounds to four in a matter of six weeks, as he did before we gave up and brought him in.

Man, that brought back some unpleasant memories. the cat I had throughout childhood had a kidney problem in the summer of '96, when she was 15. Our vet cured her but said the next time this happens, it's probably the end. so we had a few months with her to prepare, but nothing could have prepared us for how fast she went. She went from fine to famished in, no lie, a day. She pissed in my bedroom and when I went to pick her up to take her downstairs I heard the most miserable guttaral sound.

We kept her at the house for a couple more days, until she could barely move. She couldn't even lay down. she had to walk around and around and gradually lower herself. I watched this the night before we took her to the vet for the last time, and when she finally sat down, she sighed. It was the saddest sound I'd ever heard.

Found her in the exact same spot the next day, took her into the vet and he tried to cure her for a week, but there was nothing he could do. My mom and I went to say goodbye and they put her down. My sister, who was in college in Massachusetts, couldn't bring herself to join us.

damn. that's still depressing, all these years later. You're going to need a mop to collect me when our current cats leave us.

 

[Giggity]

Did the cat come back, the very next day?

Old Mr. Johnson DID have troubles of his own.

 

[Write-brained]

Earlier this year, I posted about finding my cat nearly a year - and a move 50 miles a way - after she ran away one day.

Unfortunately, she ran away again a day later. I loved that cat. I got her right after I got out of college, when I was still single. She slept next to me every night.

But she was the definition of catty. She didn't like it when my wife moved in and she definitely didn't like it when my daughter was born.

I guess it shouldin't have been a surprise that she ran away again and she found herself sharing the house with not only me, but my wife, my daughter, and my daughter's new female kitten.

The day we found her, she took a swipe at my daughter's face while my daughter was happily petting her. She ran away the next day.