Loss of a loved one....

Poststructural Pub
1

I lost one of my favorite people last night… she was “just” a cat, but she had been my nearly constant companion and a very big personality in my family for the last nine years.

I hurts so much to not have her around, and it hurts even more to have watched her go through this sudden, obviously overpowering loss of strength, and painful event.

I’m playing tonight for a dance… it will be both helpful and painful, as several of the folks involved knew her and how special she was. I know they will ask why I look like I’ve been crying… I’ve given up on pretending there is a way not to do so…

I will miss having to reach around her to get to the keyboard, having her choose the middle of whatever I’m studiously reading as her nap or bath spot, having her chase the oldest child to bed, and back, and to bed again to the shrieks of laughter it always brought, … I will miss the sudden pain of having her land on my back, not knowing that the thickness of one T-shirt is not as welcoming as the padding of a sweater or sweatshirt… I will miss finding her hairball strategically placed to greet my feet in the morning… her tiny meow when she thinks she’s been left… her insistance that someone get up and feed her… her musical ‘thump, thump, thump, thump’ going up the scale when she went up the stairs, and the corresponding down scale when she came back to the lower floor… I’ll miss how she used to come over and tap me when I played the whistle, never sure if that was a ‘good job’, or a ‘will you stop now?’ … and her sweet, round eyed round face with its pale shades of grey cream and pink… She was always tiney in body and huge in spirit.

We will miss her greatly.

2

annie, I am truly sorry for your loss. :cry:

3

Losing our animal companions is such a difficult thing-- I’m so sorry, Annie. :frowning:

4

I’m sorry to hear it. I know that day will come for me and my cat, and I can’t imagine how devastating it must be.
I wish you all the best,

Justine

5

I’m sorry for your loss. We lost two of our cats in the past two years, both to cancer, after living with them for over 16 years. (And we have another cat that is 18 years old that could go at any time.) It’s never easy to lose a member of your family, and our pets are certainly family. Take heart in the fact that you gave your companion a good life.

John

6

:cry: :cry: :cry:

7

It’s amazing to me how important these critters are in our lives. My daughter is going through severe depression right now (even suicidal) and one of the only things I’ve seen make her laugh in the past three weeks is her dopey dog. Even though she doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning, she knows she has to walk the dog, feed him, and perhaps even take him to the dog park. I’ve seen her sit on the sofa, holding him close (even though he’s almost as big as she is) and talking to him. She left him at a doggy daycare yesterday for a “personality evaluation” to see if they’d let her leave him there one day a week, and she told me she worried every minute if he was okay, if he was happy there or wanted to come home. This dog drives me absolutely nuts a good part of the time, but thank goodness he’s here for her right now.

Susan

8

My heart really goes out to you Annie, I know how tough it is. :cry:

Loren

9

Wow Annie. I’m very sorry for your loss. It’s not “just” a cat. It’s your friend.

10

i’m very very sorry, i know how you feel. :frowning:

11

Aw, I’m sorry, I know you feel. I cried like a baby for 2 days straight when my favorite cat Squeaky was killed by a stupid dog. :frowning:

12

Nine good years together with your friend is a grand thing. Think about her and smile. While last days were hard, she knew she was loved and knew she owned a piece of your heart.

13

Nine good years together with your friend is a grand thing. Think about her and smile. While last days were hard, she knew she was loved and knew she owned a piece of your heart.

14

You have my deepest sympathy. I know how close a pet can be. When I got divorced a few years ago, my Australian shepherd Mizzy helped me so much by keeping me from coming home to an empty house. I have lost her and other dear pets, dogs and cats, over the years and the grief is real, but I just don’t want to live without a furry companion. You give them all the love you can and they give you back ten times more.

Roger

The trouble with love is that people live too long and dogs (and cats) don’t live long enough.

15

Have you thought about a parrot? They live like 80 years, you’ll be dead before they will. :stuck_out_tongue:

16

I went through a catless time a few years ago and decided I really needed to have them around. I’ve got two goofy littermate sisters named Eileen and Liz (for my favorite fiddlers).

They’ve turned out to be fairly trainable. They jump off the bed and run out of the room in the morning when I shake the covers, saying “Up, up!” I’m teaching them “move,” as in “get off the place where I want to sit,” using a firm “MOVE” and a teensy spritz with a water bottle. They’re VERY fast learners…

Many cats have taken a bit of my heart with them when they left, most recently Chickadee and Miss Kitty. They are all unique and unrepeatable gifts.

May I suggest you go to the shelter and rescue an older cat? They have less of a chance of getting adopted than the cute kittens. Chickadee came to us at age 15 (her owners were moving) and she immediately endeared herself to me by catching a mouse the first week. I only had her a couple of years, but they were memorable ones.

I’m deeply sorry for your loss.

M

17

Thanks all, for your heartfelt sympathy… We have four other cats, including one we nursed back to health after an animal attack for the last three months of last year… he and his outside buddies , all four of them, are doing just fine. Their four doggie friends are as well.

We have had so many pass through, and I expect there will be many more, but Dolly was really a one-of-a-kind-er… she and I were closer than I have ever been with any of the myriad of animals in my life. IT is like losing a child. … and a sister for the kids.. especially the youngest, who knew her for 3/4 of her life.

We have rescued strays, rescued abandoned babies (Dolly was one of those, only about 2 days old when we got her and her brother), been adopted by neighbor’s pets, and brought some home from the shelter… we’ve had dogs, cats, rats, mice, hedgehogs, birds, newts, snakes, spiders, possums, and more… it is definitely one way to add spice to life… and expense!!!.. ah well… they are all G_D’s critters, just like us human-folk… gotta love 'em.

The hardest was going up to take a nap today and not having her little thump-bump of arrival on the bed, to walk up and curl up at my shoulder… sigh… :sniffle:

She was still beautiful, even in death… I wrapped her in an old shirt of mine, that she had been on many, many times, and folded a lovely piece of silk around it, sewed it shut, and we buried her out in the back yard, next to the possums and a few other long lost souls… Dale read some poems and we all cried. My son and I brought a couple of large flat rocks to top it off with. … sigh again, and yet again :sniffle:

18

I’m so sorry for your loss, Annie. They sure leave a hole in our lives when they’re gone, don’t they?

19

hugs

‘Our’ cat (we never decided to whom who she really belongs) is 17 years old, so I know she doesn’t have that long left…I dread the day.

20

I’m sorry about your loss, Annie.