Saying Goodbye

This past summer was a rough one for us and our pets. It actually started April 1st when we lost our Miety, our "Me-Too!" kitty. She was our mama kitty, mother of Ebony and Curlie Sue (and a host of other cats belonging to my mom and dad). Miety was 18 years old and would have been 19 on July 3rd, but sadly she would not see that day. On May 31st we realized she was starting to leave us, and by April 1st we said goodbye. We had 18 wonderful years, with a couple challenges here and there (she was our irradiated kitty!), but all in all they were good.

I got Miety as a kitten shortly after coming to Ridgecrest. She was abandoned by her mother and a neighbor down the street was trying to find a home for her. Miety was my 'foot' kitty. She started out not liking to be petted, only willing to rub herself against a foot. Then she decided that hands were good, but only if you held it still for her to rub against. Then she finally figured out (probably around age 10 or so) that getting scratched felt really good! So it only took a decade. She earned her "Me-Too!" name by always wanting to get in on whatever petting, scratching, brushing, loving action was going on. If you were petting one of the other cats, well she wanted to be petted too! So, Miety (Mee-Tee) we decided stood for "Me-Too!" We were very sad to say goodbye to our little Miety Mama, Me-Too girl.

Next came, or went rather, our Curly Sue. Ebony's little sister, and Miety's youngest. Curly had been diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure in the spring of 2007 so we knew that it was only a matter of time, just like it was with Ebony. Curly took a turn for the worse and started getting anemic and was having problems with her blood levels. We tried what we could, and she like her sister had been on sub-q fluids for over a year, but unfortunately she just kept spiralling downwards and we had to say goodbye. Curly left us on June 23rd.

Curly Sue was the cutest little kitten. She was a little stinker though! She was born with a crooked tail (thus earning her name), and she had a devilish little personality. She loved to cause trouble. She was full of life and a ball of energy. In her latter years Curly became a little, uh, neurotic I guess? As Thane puts it, every household has that "one crazy cat." Well, Curly was ours. Our poor little girl had continual skin irritation issues and sometimes I wonder if that's what drove her mental. Who knows, all I know is that she decided that hiding out in the bedroom, particularly from the kids, was the best thing. I'm glad though that she would usually come out at night and snuggle with me. I had lots of good nights with my little (okay, big) Curly girl with her beside me kneading (usually with sharp little pointy claws!). I called her my Little Miss Big-Paw because she had really large paws. She was such a beautiful kitty and she took after her father. I miss my Curly Sue.

It was hard enough losing Miety, harder still to lose Curly Sue only a couple months later, but nothing prepared us for what came next. Exactly two weeks to the day from when we lost Curly we lost our Ebony. Ebony had been battling Chronic Renal Failure for 3 years and had amazing, if not miraculous, recovery from her initial 'crash' back in 2005. We called her our 'Trooper' for putting up with nightly sub-q fluids, being force-fed for months, then given meds every night for 3 years. She did it all for us. Unfortunately though her battle came to an end on July 7th when we discovered that the breathing difficulties we'd noticed were actually a major condition. Her chest was filled with fluid and it was crushing her lungs and I knew that no medical conditions that caused that would be a positive outcome for my girl. We knew then that it was time to say goodbye and to let her go so that she didn't have to fight any longer. She'd been through enough, she fought enough battles for us, it was time we fought the final one for her.

Our Kitten-Boo as we called her often was a very special cat indeed. Ebony always seemed to know how I was feeling, and she knew when I needed love. She was our only lap cat and particularly loved Thane's heating pad matabolism. I had formed a strong bond with Ebony as a kitten when she was burned running across my parent's stove upon which burned her front paws. The care I gave her helped us to really create a special connection that we kept until the very end. Ebony was my shadow, always following me around the house. She would be waiting by the garage door every day when I got home to welcome me. She would sit on top of the monitor as I'd teach my online class. How I miss my little black shadow!

We miss our girls dearly, and we've brought them home now to stay until we are reunited forever in heaven. I've written a couple poems that you can read here: http://www.digitalcaptive.net/ebony/ ("To Be Free" was written after Curly passed, and "Kitten Boo" was written for Ebony)

As a final note, I want to thank the wonderful people at the Feline CRF Support Group and at Tanya's Feline CRF Information Centre for everything they do. It was with their help that we got Ebony and Curly through everything we did, and without my friends and the help of the angels there we would have lost our Ebony in 2005.