Last week, my kitty Bandit was eating less and sleeping maybe a little more.
On Sunday he was howling and straining at the litter box and hadn't eaten at all, so we took him to a veterinary emergency hospital a half hour away. The doctor examined him and couldn't find anything obviously wrong, so injected him with a broad range antibiotic and some fluids so he wouldn't dehydrate, and drew some blood to be tested. On Monday night the test came back and nothing was particularly wrong. On Tuesday morning he went to a regular vet and she wasn't sure what was wrong either, so she arranged to have a roaming doctor with an ultrasound machine come around the next day, since she didn't have a machine of her own. (Also at this time she gave my other kitty Smoky an exam, and it turns out she's got a thyroid problem that requires medicating.) It was late Wednesday when the ultrasound came around and they found fluid in his chest, that could have meant several different things. This morning the doctor drew some fluid and examined it under a microscope and found a large number of aggressively cancerous cells. It was too far advanced for the doctor to do anything about it and he still wasn't eating, so this afternoon Bandit was euthanized. But the doctor was very nice and compassionate and let us go sit with him for an hour before he had to go. So he was calm and purring as he fell asleep for the last time. He was twelve.
Comments
R.I.P. Bandit
Oh, Jenni. I'm so sorry to hear about Bandit. I remember talking to you about both Smoky and Bandit lots of times in the chat room. I hope you and Smoky are okay. It sounds like Smoky will be better now that she'll be getting medication.
Take care and lotza sympathetic hugz.
- Terry
I'm sorry to hear of your loss
It is a common tragedy that pets do not live as long as we do but it does not make it less painful.
There is a poem about the loss of a pet, perhaps someone will post it here or you can easily find it by searching for "Rainbow Bridge". It expresses the idea that all the pets we lose in our lives are waiting for us "just this side of heaven." It's a lovely idea, and true or not, reading the poem always makes me cry and remember the animals I have known and loved. Everyone of them has owned a piece of my heart which I gave them willingly because that's what you do when you love something.
But I take comfort in another idea, too. All of life is connected, through time and space, and the intellect can, barely, imagine this net of connection. Your well-loved pet is connected to you by the net of life that connects everything that ever lived and by the times you touched him and he touched you. Those times are not gone, they are just not now -- they are forever.
The mind can grasp the thought of this connection, through the net of all life, and the heart -- the heart can feel it. Bandit was loved, is loved, will be loved and somewhere in time he still loves you and knows that you love him. He knew, he has known and he always will know. And so will you.
At the last, you were there for him. You gave him the last gift you could give, you gave him your heart. And he will keep it safe.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
Nicole (a.k.a. Itinerant)
--
Veni, Vidi, Velcro:
I came, I saw, I stuck around.
What's he gonna do
with his other eight lives?
Our furry little ones
It always hurts to lose of our furry little ones. To just call it losing a pet just don't do it. They're friend and companion that takes a piece of you with them when they go. Although I wonder sometimes as to who is keeping who sometimes with cats.
Big Hugs
Grover
My condolences
Hey, Jen.
We lost our family dog a while ago ourselves, so I know how it can be to lose a family pet. Â I'm sorry.
You are also braver than I - if it came down to it, I don't know if I can euthanize my pet. Â I am in agreement with what you did. Â It was the kind, humane and loving thing to do.
I am dedicating this picture I found in the net to your little Bandito, as well as a small prayer I will make in church tomorrow (I won't be able to go to church on Sunday, hence a Saturday mass).
To see the old Working Girl Blogs, Â click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs
To see all of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c
To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link -
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
Â
note: pictures used are publicly-accessible pictures from the net - no i.p. or copyright infringement is intended
Adios, Bandito
I know how you feel
May Your Light Forever Shine
Just Went through that with better results
Holly Hart and I are owned by two cats: Bleu, an ancient tuxedo and Neptune, a Russian Blue. Bleu had the same symptoms and we were afraid he might die. The doc told us he was anemic and gave him medicine. He is now normal, considering his age.
You have my sympathy.
Shelly
i AM SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS
Sorry about the all caps. trying out a new keyboard.
The hardest thing I ever did was hold our dying 14 year old cats Charlie as we euthanized him in the late summer of 1994.
I cried more for him than for my own mother and older sister when they both died some ten years later.
Now the brother and sister cats we got from the Humane Society are getting close to their time as both are now 17 and in early to moderate stage kidney failure
Will they pass one first or my almost 85 year old dad?
My sister's fiancée's family buried their father today, dead at 71 from complications of nearly 20 years of MS.
Even I at 53 feel the occasional twinge in an elbow. Time will get us all in the end.
Get another cat once you are sure this was not a viral caused cancer. Better yet a pair as they are happier and better adjusted that way. And when they meow in synchronization it is something you will never forget.
Remember your loved onesfor they deserve it.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Great people
Thank you all so much for your kind words of sympathy.
Consolement
When a lifelong friend died, Albert Einstein wrote this to the friend's family:
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in
physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
I have found so much consolement from this intelligent and wise observation of Einstein's ever since first reading it. May you also feel comforted and reassured about Bandit from this quote. If you share Einstein's belief, you and Bandit are not separated at all by past, present, and future. You always have been, and you are right this moment, and you always will be, together as immediately as you and Bandit were for those twelve years. We humans don't seem to be equipped to see past the illusion of time, so we can't see our loved ones who aren't with us now - in the present that we are limited to perceiving. But we are together with them, and ever shall be. That is the reality, at least if we believe that Einstein was very smart about understanding reality.
Obviously, you feel deeply for Bandit and have been a wonderful guardian and family to Bandit. We can see from what you wrote that respect and love for Bandit's dignity and spirit have always been there. That he fell asleep purring and with you is the most merciful way that things could have ended for him, and is a great relief.
You probably guessed that I have been family and guardian to quite a few cats, and had to let go of them quite a few times. I remember each individual one of them all the time. The pain of not seeing them anymore fades away, but never completely. It is seeing them in memory that is a growing comfort as time seems to flow on.
I hope these words are helpful to you, and hope that time - that stubborn illusion - heals the hurt, as it usually does.
With love and compassion,
Annemarie
Sympathy a little late.
I am so sorry for your loss. I had to put both Mr. Kitty and Miss. Kitty down in succeeding years, I held them both until they fell asleep for good. No one in my family had the strength to stay with them, and I could not leave them alone. I have worked as a fire fighter and EMT but the hardest thing I ever did was sit with my babies as they left this world. Bandit is waiting for you and watching you knowing he was loved. I pray for your peace and healing, but know you are not alone.
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair