Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Farewell Mr. Kitty


We lost our beloved Mr. Kitty unexpectedly last week.  We knew when we adopted him that he had a bad heart and our vet warned us that it was a ticking time bomb which would eventually result in his sudden death.  I just didn't think it would be last Tuesday. 

We came home from work/school and couldn't find the cat.  We hunted all over the place and the longer it went on, the more concerned I became.  Dave came home and found him huddled behind the TV set, alive, but not looking so hot.  Dave pulled him out and sat him on the ground where we discovered his hind quarters were paralyzed.  At this point, we knew it was bad and Kira was hysterical as we packed him in his carrier and headed to the emergency vet.   They immediately began triage work on him and put us in a room to talk to talk to the vet. Unfortunately, it was as we feared.  His heart threw off a clot paralyzing the back half of his body, his overall body temperature was low and the back part of his body was cold.  He was in immense pain and the prognosis was grim.  We had an emergency family meeting and decided it was not fair to Mr. Kitty to prolong his suffering and made the agonizing decision to euthanize him.   It was horrible.  The vet brought him to us to say goodbye and after hugging and kissing him one final time, Kira and I left the room and Dave stayed while they did the procedure.  Kira couldn't handle being with him when he passed.

We gave Mr. Kitty a good home for the remaining year and a half of his life and he gave us much love in return.  While I hate that Kira had to go through this, it has taught her that sometimes the right thing to do is really hard, but you should do it anyway.  It taught her compassion and selflessness.  It taught her that it only really hurts when you truly love. 

Mr. Kitty was an incredibly loving animal who got a raw deal in life.  He's in a better place and my Dad is taking care of him now.