A sad Friday...

Our little Maddie crossed the Rainbow Bridge on April 4. 

We adopted her - or I should say, she chose the Spawn - from the Humane Society back in July 2012.  We'd gone in to see the cats available and she kept reaching out thru the cage door at the Spawn, so we asked to visit with her, and she came home with us that day.   But once she met the Spouse - he was her hooman. 

We had no real idea of how old she actually was, but she getting to the stage where she was losing weight (she was never a big cat to begin with), it was hard to keep herself groomed and she would occasionally lose her balance while walking.  

Right after we brought her home.  

The Humane Society said she had pink eye, but after a visit to a specialist, we found she had an ulcer on her eyeball that could easily have popped with simply jumping off the couch.  They wanted to do surgery, but they also said there was a 30% chance it would heal on its own.  It did. 

She was the Work From Home Supervisor.  She also attended Zoom meetings & classes. 

With her favorite hooman. 

She definitely had resting bitch face! 

So anyway - lunchtime last Friday, she'd jumped up on the kitchen chair and then onto the table to demand attention from the Spouse.  She'd been really needy in the couple days leading up to this.  He held her for a while, then she went & napped in her little hidey hole that's near his work area. It's on the kitchen counter behind a plant stand where she could see him.  I got home from work and right after that, he carried her into the bedroom saying she couldn't stand up!  

We spent the evening snuggling her and she would have bouts where we couldn't tell if she was hurting or just mad. Probably both.  Once the grandkids went to bed, we decided to take her to a 24-hour emergency vet that is only a couple miles from our house.  She's never liked riding in the car, but she laid there in his arms and looked out the window and up out of the moonroof & was fine!

We told the ladies at the vet's office what was going on & they checked her out.  Found out it was neurological - they said it was either she'd had a blood clot go into her brain and cause her limbs to do their own thing (that's why she was mad - she knew she had legs, they just didn't work!) or she had a tumor.  But since it came on so quick, we're assuming it was a clot.  We could have paid a lot of $$ to get her tested and try to get her better, but would she suffer?  Would it even work?  How long would it last?  So, we opted for helping her to cross the Rainbow Bridge. 

The ladies at the vet were phenomenal.  Very compassionate and respectful.  They let us take all the time we needed.  Once we made the decision, I filled out all the paperwork so we wouldn't have to deal with that later, etc.  It was kind of funny that they brought in a doorbell to ring when we were ready for them to come in - but the doorbell was mounted on a metal weenie dog (I can't even get spellcheck to help me spell the actual name of it!) sculpture with big marble eyes.  

I was morbidly fascinated with the whole process, tho.  They took Maddie out and put the IV with a long tube in her leg and brought her back to us.  That & the initial checkout was the only time she was out of the Spouse's arms.  When we were ready, the vet tech came in with 3 huge syringes.  The first was sedation.  She would feel no pain, would be relaxed, but she'd still know we were there.  The next was a simple flush for the tube.  The third looked like Windex - it was anesthesia, and they basically OD'd her on it.  It was super quick.  

I love this picture.  This was before they took her to put the IV in.

The other 3 cats we've lost are buried out in the back yard, but since it was a really crappy day on Saturday, we decided to have her cremated instead and now she has a beautiful little redwood box that matches the one our dog has and is sitting on the plant stand by her little hidey hole.