Someone lost or misplaced a young tortiseshell cat here in the shining metropolis in the summer of 1989. Someone else found her and took her to a shelter. I brought her home. cwKitty was, without doubt, the sweetest, most brainlessly indulgent cat cwPartner and I have ever met, and she gave me us, as cwPartner puts it, “hours of mindless amusement.” We have no kids, so cwKitty never learned to be afraid of small children, much to the delight of many small visitors. People who like cats adored cwKitty, and people who weren’t sure about cats liked cwKitty. Cat-allergic friends would take decongestants and pet her anyway.
When you see something every day, you don’t always notice changes. When you’re away from home for a few weeks at a time, on the other hand, things look different when you come back. On a recent weekend home, I noticed cwKitty didn’t look right. She’s always been a very lean kitty, and she had acquired a distinctly round shape to her midsection. The vet drained a lot of fluid, felt around, did x-rays. Because of her age (at least 16), we decided to stick to minimally invasive treatment, avoid exploratory surgery, do some diagnostic tests. Tests were negative for everything, so we all watched and waited. cwKitty seemed comfortable, but three weeks later she was spherical. The vet drained more fluid and prescribed Prednisone to shrink a mass he could feel in her abdomen. cwKitty seemed comfortable again, but less than two weeks later, she had lost a lot of weight as well as her interest in eating (bad, bad sign - the eating is good if you’re a fussy cat and cwPartner is running the house - we’re talking offerings of sardines, lox and schmear, tuna fish, petro malt, and other goodies). Another trip to the vet, more draining, renewed appetite, new drugs, more Prednisone. Last week her appetite faded again - by Saturday she’d sniff food and lick it, but she wouldn’t even try to eat, except for smelly cat treats which she would pick up, break in her teeth, and then drop. Carrying her around, I realized she’d lost even more weight.
It is surprisingly easy to make an unpleasant decision when things have gotten really bad. She had become so weak, so fragile, and so obviously confused and uncomfortable. cwKitty was euthanized Sunday morning. Watching her relax, I realized how long it has been since she really looked comfortable in her own skin.
Since cwKitty devoted her life to trying (with occasional success) to dash out the back door into the yard, that’s where she’s going. Yes, cwKitty, you DO go outside after all.
I miss her.
If you lost or misplaced a young tortiseshell cat in the shining metropolis in the summer of 1989, you may tell yourself that she had a long life and she made a lot of people smile.