It's been a minute since I've been here. Been a little preoccupied with therapy, interviewing for a temp job, drug-testing, and taking care of one of my fur babies, the newest one to join our clan is also, sadly, on her way out... and it kills me to watch when there is nothing I can do for her.
Meet Sleepy.
She probably looks peaceful and comfortable enough, until you reach over to pet her, or worse, see her stand up.
All of my current cats have Disney names.
We have Tigger first.
Tigger is my oldest cat, I helped his momma bring him into this world. He's 12 years old, and my baby. I've never had a pet last me this long? And I can't even bring myself to think about life after Tigger. I got his name when, as a kitten he would hop all over the place, and has beautiful tiger stripes in his fur... Tigger was the perfect name.
3 years later came Figero. As a kitten, Figero looked and continues to look, EXACTLY like the kitten from Pinnochio!!!
Omg. Sooo flippin cute.
And when Joey came into my life, he brought with him the grumpy grampa of cats- King Louie...
Louie was ornery and old, stuck in his ways. But damn I grew to love him. Louie had been Joey's mothers' cat before she passed away, so he was literally late teens to possibly as old as 20 when we moved him in here.
Needless to say, our little 'cat family' should've been enough for me... and it was!! Until.
I went to my friend's house for my birthday.
Her cat had had a litter of only 2 kittens but only 1 survived. That's when I was introduced to, and fell in love with, a tiny white ball of fluff. She fit into the palm of my hand and I was smitten.
I asked my friend if she was keeping her and she said she couldn't have 3 cats, so I turned around and informed Joey that we had just acquired our 4th fur baby! We couldn't take her home that night, she still needed a few more weeks with Momma.
We talked it over and decided it was cute to stick with Disney characters so... Elsa became the queen of the house!! (No pics on my phone of her as a kitten, but this is Elsa now)
Elsa definitely brought life back into the house. She played with Louie and made him feel young again ❤️ We had a great year with all 4.
But a little over a year after Elsa, Louie got sick.
We learned he had gotten feline diabetes and we just couldn't afford the $200+ a month for medication. I knew and understood how important Louie was to Joey, but we also knew realistically that he probably didn't have much longer to live. Louie also started losing control of bodily functions...
It was extremely difficult to come to the decision that we should let him go comfortably. We had a trip coming up and our wonderful neighbors would be watching our cats. We didn't want Louie to die painfully and when we couldn't be there for him, and didn't want that burden put on our neighbors plates just for being nice to us.
I know now, it was totally the right thing to do.
Joey was there, and held his paw while he went to sleep for the last time.
We chose to let Louie go in November, 2016.
3 months later, Joey called me on a break while he was at work. We're casually talking about the weather and he tells me we're supposed to reach freezing temps and jokes not to leave pets or plants outside. I reply, we don't have any pets we keep outside anyway? Fate...
Joey calls me again. It's now after 10pm and he should be on his way home? He is; he says 'Nicole, I'm just walking home minding my own business, and this guy who's about to pass me walking in the opposite direction stops me. He asks, is that your cat? I have no idea what he's talking about, so I ask him. He points behind me. A cat is following me home... what should I do?!'
I laugh. He's joking again, right?
I said 'if they follow you all the way home, they can stay- if our cats permit!'
Joey walks through the back door, holding a gorgeous, slightly ragged pure grey cat.
We go through Disney characters lol.
She had a patch of fur missing that eventually grew back in. You could tell she'd been out there a while, but had the sweetest temperament. Joey originally wanted to go with Bagheera, from The Jungle Book. But, after doing nothing but eat and sleep for 2-3 weeks straight, we ended up on Sleepy 😊.
She's been with us ever since. Joey wasn't expecting a new cat to come along quite so quickly, we were still mourning Louie but Sleepy had needed a warm place, a home, and love and we had that. I know she helped Joey mend that gaping hole left in his heart without Louie here.
She has always been sweet. Yeah, the cats fight sometimes but nothing major. But she's stayed the outsider this whole year. She cuddles with us, but never the other 3. And Elsa HATES her. Can't walk by Sleepy without at least one clawless swipe to the face. Tigger, Figero, and Elsa can be seen together everywhere around the house.
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But never with Sleepy...
Now it's been several months, and she went from a beautiful, healthy cat with a little pudge, to a walking skeleton and barely eats.
I can't stand watching her waste away before our very eyes but we have NOTHING financially to her quality vet care, and even that is often a shot in the dark. We've changed foods to a higher quality with MUCH better ingredients. We've fed her canned food, tuna, raw egg, cooked egg, raw chicken livers, cooked chicken livers, sardines and nothing has worked or improved.
I've been extremely lucky never having to face this horror on a human being that I've loved. I cannot fathom the pain one feels when you see a loved one in pain and there is nithing you can do for them. I know the the grief I feel right now for seeing Sleepy, can only be minuscule in comparison. We've only had her a year and already I love her so...
So for the past 3-4 days, I have spent as much time with her as I can. I hold her and pet her and let her know that we DO love her. The reality of our situation sucks. But we gave her a home. We kept her warm, and fed with fresh water daily and rescued our first cat. When her time comes, I hope she knows we did what we could, and will forever leave a mark on our hearts ♥️...