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Sunday, September 11, 2016

A furry friend says good bye


It’s been a difficult few days around my house.  I finally have sense enough to sit down and write a post.  My house has been filled with grief and so much sadness that I didn’t even want to get on the internet.



 Tootie is five in this picture
Last Wednesday, the seventh of September, we had to put down one of our cats.  It was time.  And though we hate to see that time come, it always does.  Animals have a shorter lifespan than us even if we wished it was different.

Our oldest cat, Tootie, has been on a downhill slide for a couple of years now.  She was pretty ill on Wednesday morning when we got up.  She had diarrhea and was meowing a lot and moving her mouth around as if she had something caught in there.  She threw up multiple times during the night.



 Tootie at age four.  Cats's always love boxes.
Hubby took off work and I had the day off anyway so we took her to the vet once they opened.  We knew she had dementia and would get lost in the house.  She also had limited hearing, which I think contributed to her being so vocal about everything.  On top of that was arthritis, so we were giving her joint medication for that.  It looked so painful for her to get up and down even with her medicine, although the situation was a bit better.  I knew she wasn’t very comfortable because she would move about the house to different spots trying to find one that suited her best.  She drank lots of water, but the vet said that was typical for an older cat on a previous visit.



 Tootie at age two
Little did we know once we left the house with her that morning that it would be the last time.  The other two cats knew something was up because they came to hang around her and watch her that morning.  Raven has been her best friend because they are both very social cats.  Koki is more of a loner and prefers to hang out by herself upstairs most of the time.  But that morning, she was downstairs too checking it all out.



 Here she is posing in the cabin we had in 2005
Once at the vet we discovered Tootie had a broken tooth.  We decided against having surgery for that because he said her kidneys were beginning to fail and she’d lost about three pounds since her last vet visit.  He told us the end was near, which means it could be weeks, or a month or two, but we had to think about her quality of life at that point.  She’d had sixteen-and-a-half years with us and had lived the best life we could give her.



 Looking majestic under the Christmas tree
Out of all the cats we’ve had, Tootie is the only one who adopted us.  When she was a kitten she came to our door in California and wanted to be let in.  She did a cute little cat dance with her fluffy tail curled in the air and repeated this performance four days in a row.  On the fourth day, I opened the door and let her in.  She walked into the house as if she’d always lived there and commenced to play with Comet, our youngest female cat at the time.  These cats played for three hours straight until they both collapsed on the floor exhausted. 

I found out later that hubby went looking for her in the neighborhood on his way to work.  She was later showing up at the house that day and he was worried about her.



 Posing on the dining room chair
The rest is really history.  She fit in good with the family becoming cat number four, at the time, and giving us two girls and two boys.  The rest of our cats were rescues.  I could go on and on with cat stories as I’ve had cats all my life and probably will have until the day I die. 

But this post is about Tootie and how wonderful she was, although we had some trying times over the last couple of years once she began to lose her mind and get bad arthritis in her legs.

This is one of my favorites.  Cats love to get on anything you put on the floor, or anywhere else.

Tootie was most photogenic cat we’ve ever cat and never has taken a bad picture.  She would also put up with me, like Raven, and let me put birthday hats on her.  She never knew a stranger either and would make friends with anyone who came to visit.  Raven is much the same way and misses her so much, as we all do.  He’s been looking for her in the house, although I know he knows she was ill when he last saw her on Wednesday.



 Tootie always seemed to know when I got the camera out.
I can’t tell you how sad and quiet it was around the house that day.  We cried most of the day and couldn’t eat.  I was so glad we didn’t have to go into work.  We threw ourselves into cleaning and cleaned the whole house from top to bottom to keep our minds busy and off things.  My house is so clean now I hardly recognize it.  But it’s so quiet because Tootie talked all the time and the other cats rarely do.



 She thinks she's hiding in this pot but still posing for the picture.
The next day it was back to work and although neither of us felt like it, it was probably what we needed to get out of the funk we were in.  We’re having her cremated so she’ll join the other urns in the house when we pick her up in a week.  Meanwhile, I hope she’s young again, free of all her woes and reunited with the other cats in the Summerland, (as I like to call the afterlife).  To me the Summerland is a wonderful place with flowers, butterflies, constant spring/summer weather, beautiful blue skies, lots of green grass and trees filled with happy birds, among other things.



 Give a cat a sack or a box and they're happy
I hope you’ve enjoyed all the pictures I picked out from Tootie’s life.  We were blessed she picked us for her human parents.  Rest in peace sweet girl until we meet again.

This was her tenth birthday

March 30, 2000 – September 7, 2016

10 comments:

  1. I'm sorry for your loss, Sunni. Saying goodbye to our special family members is always so hard.

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    Replies
    1. Carol,

      Thanks so much. Things like this never get any easier, but we must remember the good times that pets bring us and the wonderful life we can share with them while they're here.

      Thank you so much for reading. Your comment means the world to me.

      Sunni

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  2. I am so sorry. She will live forever in your hearts. What a great cat she was.

    Betty

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    Replies
    1. Betty,

      Thank you so much, my friend. I know you still remember the grief of losing Koda, but our pets bring us many happy memories we'll carry for the rest of our lives.

      Thank you so much for reading about Tootie's life and leaving a message for me.

      Sunni

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  3. Tootie was a beautiful kitty. I am so sorry for your loss, no matter how old they are,it seems like we don't get enough time with them. That was a sweet story of how she chose you. XO

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    Replies
    1. Pilch,

      She was a beautiful long-haired cat who was very outgoing and never knew a stranger. That's a true story about her adopting us. We've adopted all of our other cats in various ways through the years. And you're right - there is never enough time to spend with them.

      Thank you so much for reading and leaving a comment in this time of grief.

      Sunni

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  4. Replies
    1. Liz,

      Thank you for telling me that. I really appreciate all the comments everyone has left for me here. There is never enough time in a pet's life. Having to say goodbye is one of the hardest things we humans will ever have to do.

      Sunni

      Delete
  5. Beautiful pictures. It's obvious that Tootie had a wonderful life and was very loved. I'm sorry for your loss.

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    Replies
    1. Vashti,

      Thank you, my friend. We gave her the best life we could.

      Sunni

      Delete

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comment on my posts. I appreciate it.
Sunni