Farewell Furry Friend

 Yesterday was a tough day.  The vet called us on the way back home from picking Antoine up at the airport and told us that they were going to have to put down our cat Missy.  She had been sick for sometime I guess, but cats have a way of masking that they aren't feeling well and it wasn't until last week that we new something was up.  It turned out to be a severe kidney infection, kidney failure and possibly more.  Wednesday the vet took her in for observation, to try to hydrate her and get rid of the kidney infection so they could see what else was going on.  But she refused to eat and continued to be very dehydrated, and then sometime yesterday she had a stroke.

When I stopped into the vet's office to visit her yesterday before heading off to the airport she was only a shell of her former self.  It was so sad to see her so weak and miserable.  That wasn't the Missy I knew.  Missy was always kind of a strange cat, strange in the way she sounded and looked.  Always a bit scraggly, we affectionately called her our junkyard cat because she looked a little rough around the edges!  Sometimes she'd get these knots in her fur (because her hair was really fine) so we'd have to shave her around her neck.  Then she'd have these big patches of fur missing where we had shaved out knots, making it look like she had just been in some sort of feline brawl.  Then there was her meow.  When she meowed she always sounded like she was pissed off, it was deep and almost like a growl.  But that was just her meow, that's the way she sounded all the time, whether she was happy or not!

 She was just a sweet little girl, so petite and agile!  Here she is in the kitchen, begging for a piece of the chicken breast I was cutting up at the time. 

 

Even though she was small she was also the most fearless of all our cats!  When we first got Cheese, Gui and Buddy hid in the basement for days (like the big cowards that they are), but not Missy!  She stood her ground, observing this strange little puppy, and when need be giving him a little swat on the nose for getting too close!

 Like all of our cats, one of Missy's absolute favorite things were Spring and Summer days when we'd open up the windows and she could look out onto our street and enjoy the breeze.

She liked to keep to herself and spent most of her days curled up in a ball napping away on the bed.

Tonight will be another rough night as well.  After work we are picking up Missy from the vet so we can bury her.  I think it'll be nice to bury her in the backyard, to know where she is and look upon that spot and think of her, her strange meow, and her sweet, fearless demeanor.  It is always so tough losing a pet.  And I feel so bad for Antoine, who has had her since she was a kitten.  This is the first pet he has ever had to say goodbye to, and I know that he feels helpless and so very sad right now.  But I am glad that he can remember her as she was, happy, kneading his chest before it was time to go to sleep (the only time she wanted affection was just before you went to bed).  

Goodbye Missy, we will miss you!