RIP Skeeter, my sweet baby boy.

 I'll post about my weigh in & stuff later.  I'm too upset right now.

Today was a really sad day.  I got the worst call ever from the vet.  Skeeter didn't make it through the night.

~sniff~

Let me back up.  Tuesday evening, he was acting a bit off.  Like he was concerned about something.  He was normally fairly talkative, but he was making loud, odd-sounding howls.  I didn't know what to think, so I spent more time with him and he seemed OK.

Wednesday, he was very lethargic and zombie-ish.  He acted like his tummy hurt.  I checked all my houseplants and none of them looked freshly chewed - heck even if they were - I'd suspect Chester, not Skeet!  I checked the ribbons on the balloon Angel still has floating around her room, since he has been known to chew on those.  Nope.  Still neatly cut.   He came when I called him (slowly) and I lifted him up on the couch next to me to watch the Wings game.  He literally didn't move.  Not even the end of his tail.  I just sat & petted him until I went to bed.  I left him on the couch since he seemed comfortable.

Thursday he seemed a bit perkier, but I still called the vet and got him an early appointment.  She wanted to keep him for x-rays and to take some blood for tests.  OK.  She called me later in the afternoon and said he wasn't happy with them (he never was!) and they could only get a tiny blood sample and the x-rays showed a blockage in his urinary tract.  Poor guy couldn't pee!  No wonder he hurt!  So she catheterized him and flushed his bladder with saline and then was going to put him on fluids and something to reduce the inflammation in that area.  She also said she was going to give him a little something to calm him down so he could rest and relax and that she'd call me in the morning.

So when she called me this morning, she told me that they ran the most important tests on the small blood sample they got & the levels of these certain chemicals (I forget the 3 she rattled off ) were so high, they were off the scale.  And that's when she dropped the news on me.

She said cats tends to hide when they are in pain, so he may have been hurting for a while and it just got to be too much, so that's when he started talking more.  Apparently the sedative was enough to help him go peacefully.

Randy was supposed to leave for Arkansas today.  So he was still home when I called him.  He went to the vet to get Skeeter, since I sure didn't want him cremated. I was still at work and for once, the office grapevine worked in my benefit.  Geri apparently heard me say "Oh No" and saw me grab a box of Kleenex and run out onto the dock.  She in turn told my boss, who was waiting inside the door when I went back inside.  I told her what happened & she told me to go home if I needed to.  So I did.

Randy had him in the garage when I got home.  He was still in the crate, wrapped up in a blue cloth that had a piece of tape with his name and hearts drawn on it.  We chose a nice spot in the back yard for his final resting spot.  He's under some pine trees and nothing will grow there, so I plan to find a nice statue or stone to put his name on.   We got the area dug out, then waited for Angel to get home from school.  She had a half day today, so we didn't have to wait long.

I admit to be mildly creeped out.  So was Randy.  He brought him out of the garage and handed him to me to wrap in one of my old shirts before putting him in his grave.  I really wasn't expecting him to still be warm!  I was expecting cold & stiff.  Randy said he swore he felt him purr.

I'm really gonna miss my baby.  He just turned 11 in July.  I was expecting to have a few more years with him.  Randy was really tore up, too.  When we came in after the burial and all 3 of us were sitting on the bed, Chester & Maggie both got on the bed with us.  I think Chester is wondering where he is, too.

 It's sad, but I know he's probably up in Heaven, laying on my dad's lap already.  He's hopefully comfortable and safe and I really need to get some tissue!!!