Pawprints On Our Hearts

 

We lost our sweet Mimi cat yesterday.  She was 19 years old and her kidneys had shut down.  She was so very sick, and, despite the vet’s best efforts, the kindest choice was to let her go.

Mimi was full grown when she came to us at age 12.  She had lived in one home from her kittenhood, but her owner was going into an assisted living facility and was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to care for Mimi there, so Mimi came to us.  She was frightened and confused at first; I put her carrier in the powder room with a litter box and a food dish, and it was probably 3 days before she ventured out.  She was also coming into a home where another cat – Timothy – had already established himself, so she had that to deal with as well.  But she got used to her new place, she and Timothy became best friends, and she decided that my husband had the best lap to snooze in.

She was diagnosed with kidney failure a little over a year ago.  I’ve been feeding her the prescription kidney diet cat food, and she had been doing quite well.  We’d noticed some weight loss recently, and she’s been thin almost to the point of emaciation, although she was still eating and drinking.  Then, just in the last couple of weeks, her health took a downward turn.  With no muscle mass, she was getting more and more frail, then she lost interest in food.  She was lethargic on Monday, and could barely stand, so we took her to the vet that evening when my husband got home from work.

They kept her overnight to give her IV fluids and to do blood work.  I talked to the vet on Tuesday morning; Mimi’s kidney values were off the chart and not in a good way, and they had her in an incubator to try to regulate her temperature.  We went to see her Tuesday afternoon, and she didn’t respond when I slid open the incubator door and rubbed her head.  We agreed to try one more night of fluids and blood work.  Yesterday afternoon we went to see her, and after talking with the vet, we realized that we had to let her go.  They brought her in to us and she didn’t seem to even be aware that we were there.  We petted her and talked to her and she finally did twitch her tail a little.  I held her while the vet gave her the injections that would take away her suffering; she was so sick and so frail that it took only a very few seconds for her to pass.

It’s hard to let a beloved pet go.  I’ll miss seeing her waiting at the top of the stairs when I come in from work.  I’ll miss seeing her play with Timothy, and climb into Greg’s lap, and snooze under the dining room table.  I’ve read a little saying that pets leave pawprints on our hearts.  You’ll get no argument from me.



She loved shoes.  She didn't chew them or play with them; she just hung out with the shoes.

Best buds, keeping an eye on things from the top of the stairs.

Favorite thing to do:  drink out of the faucet in the hall bathroom.