A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: Tredder's Story
Had to go in to the vet to say good-bye to my cat Tredder of 15 years.
I found him as a starving little gray, striped kitten in the backyard coming out from under a nearby wood pile to eat some of the grain I had just put out for the ducks, in a feeder near a pond I had dug for them, and kept full of water. He tried to get away, but didn't have the strength to get far. He seemed to resign himself to his fate, and just melted in my hands.
I brought him in and opened a can of cat food for him, and watched him happily chow down, then I went over and sat down on the couch. When he had finished eating, he looked around, saw me and headed straight over to me, hopped up on my chest and curled up in a little ball, purring contentedly. He was mine from then on.
For awhile, he had no interest whatsoever in going outside. Eventually he did. As he grew sicker in the last few days, he loved to just lay by the back sliding glass door in the sun and sleep as he grew thinner and thinner. Finally, I took him into the vet, where he rapidly declined. Apparently he'd caught a bacteria that was eating his red blood cells. Nothing else seemed to be wrong according to all the tests.
Today, about a quarter to 7, I got a call from the vet to come in. He said he'd had a couple of seizures, and was almost gone. I went down and took him from off the vet's lap as he sat in the lobby waiting for me. He relaxed, and purred. I wish I could have taken him home, but that really wouldn't have worked. He had an IV attached and the trip home would have been rather rather bouncy, and he didn't need that. I finally relented to the vet's advice, and my dad's, and let the vet give him the shot as he seemed to be sleeping comfortably in my arms. In a few seconds, he just stopped breathing, and it was over. The vet disconnected the IV, and gave me a nice little box with handle holes to put him in to carry him home and bury him in; which I did.
As I was driving home, and came to the stop light at the intersection by Subway, across the parking lot from Pizza Hut, I pulled up behind a young woman in a white Honda with a license plate that read KILLUH. A rough ending to a very sad day with a burial to look forward to. I lost me mother 5 days before Christmas, 2002. Our cat Sylvester, died the next month. This year I lost a dear friend in late March, but only found out about his death last month. The next month, Tredder was gone. These things come in threes I'm told....
I found him as a starving little gray, striped kitten in the backyard coming out from under a nearby wood pile to eat some of the grain I had just put out for the ducks, in a feeder near a pond I had dug for them, and kept full of water. He tried to get away, but didn't have the strength to get far. He seemed to resign himself to his fate, and just melted in my hands.
I brought him in and opened a can of cat food for him, and watched him happily chow down, then I went over and sat down on the couch. When he had finished eating, he looked around, saw me and headed straight over to me, hopped up on my chest and curled up in a little ball, purring contentedly. He was mine from then on.
For awhile, he had no interest whatsoever in going outside. Eventually he did. As he grew sicker in the last few days, he loved to just lay by the back sliding glass door in the sun and sleep as he grew thinner and thinner. Finally, I took him into the vet, where he rapidly declined. Apparently he'd caught a bacteria that was eating his red blood cells. Nothing else seemed to be wrong according to all the tests.
Today, about a quarter to 7, I got a call from the vet to come in. He said he'd had a couple of seizures, and was almost gone. I went down and took him from off the vet's lap as he sat in the lobby waiting for me. He relaxed, and purred. I wish I could have taken him home, but that really wouldn't have worked. He had an IV attached and the trip home would have been rather rather bouncy, and he didn't need that. I finally relented to the vet's advice, and my dad's, and let the vet give him the shot as he seemed to be sleeping comfortably in my arms. In a few seconds, he just stopped breathing, and it was over. The vet disconnected the IV, and gave me a nice little box with handle holes to put him in to carry him home and bury him in; which I did.
As I was driving home, and came to the stop light at the intersection by Subway, across the parking lot from Pizza Hut, I pulled up behind a young woman in a white Honda with a license plate that read KILLUH. A rough ending to a very sad day with a burial to look forward to. I lost me mother 5 days before Christmas, 2002. Our cat Sylvester, died the next month. This year I lost a dear friend in late March, but only found out about his death last month. The next month, Tredder was gone. These things come in threes I'm told....
posted by Postmann | 7:44 PM
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