Emily came into our lives nearly 14 years ago as a scared six week old kitten. She was Keyron’s first kitten and was a fairly high strung little cat, but also one determined little cat.
What we hadn’t realized about giving her those little catnip stuffed mice was that we’d be creating probably the best mouser we’ve ever had. The only thing was, she never realized the proper thing to do with the carcass, or maybe she did. You see, she’d gut them and then stuff the corpses under cushions, etc. You may or may not note a weird smell in the interim. But then months later she’d trot out these little dessicated treasures.
During her first year or so she was a curtain climber. Bold little cat. She’s the cat that will hop in the garbage can to fish out bones. Seriously. She was all refined and dainty at 6.5lbs but she was a street cat from the get go. I remember how she acted with Cosimo who was nearly four times her size, she was the Queen. You never screw with the Queen and she made that fact quite evident to the two male cats that were then in the house.
Then of course she was the type of cat that loved to be petted. She’d actually lean into you while you were petting her. We had fourteen years with her, and I guess that’s more than some, less than some. But we’ll miss her terribly.
And the vet, whom I’ve recommended to a whole bunch of people is now on my shit list. Ok, would someone tell me what it is about medical professionals? How they can lie to your face and then backpedal to their notes when the shit hits the fan? They knew Emily was going to die two weeks back. They knew. They only treat cats at this vets office. If they had simply told me two weeks ago that the best option was to euthanize, I would have done it then. Instead I had to see Emily suffer for these last two weeks, barely able to move or breathe.
This morning at 7AM I was awakened by Keyron, he thought Emily was dead. I came out, she had a heart rate of around 50BPM, which on a cat should be over 100BPM. In the half hour it took me to shower and get dressed, she had died.
Let me explain that it takes a lot for my ‘scary guy’ to come out. A lot. They punched my buttons enough today that I lost it. We then took our dead cat to the Providence Animal Rescue League where she’ll be cremated and place in an urn.
I simply told the staff at the vets office that as a courtesy they’d cremate and urn Emily gratis. Yes, I did get a bit loud, but that’s what happens when ‘scary guy’ comes out. That ended badly so we took her to the Providence Animal Rescue League who did a personal cremation with urn for a small amount of money.
Keyron always had a suspicion about this vet, who worked for Ferguson Animal Hospital back 12 years ago. She’s the one who had spayed Emily, and even then Keyron knew. I should have listened to him.
Oh well – back to the old ways I guess. Maybe an all cat practice isn’t the way to go.