Dana and I have known for a few weeks that we had a difficult decision to make. Spike’s dementia (yes, cats get senile) was getting worse and worse, his hips were making it harder (and more painful) for him to get around and then, he started losing large amounts of weight. Although we really didn’t want to, today we said goodbye.
He was 16, almost 17 years old and had been a faithful friend. Not having him here leaves a huge hole in our family. Anna Grace loved him dearly (I think Spike felt that she loved him a little too much) and just yesterday she learned to say his name. Earlier today before we took him to the vet she walked down the hall calling "Spikey" over and over. Spikey was his nickname.
Dana adopted Spike when he was a kitten. Spike wasn’t too pleased when we got married. Each day when Dana would leave for work that cat would sit by the door and howl. He would stay there until Dana returned that evening. It didn’t help that I introduced three cats into his life and he had enjoyed life as an "only child" for many years. Eventually he decided that I wasn’t so bad afterall and he learned to love the other cats as well, especially Chloe. Spike and Chloe have had a "thing" goin’ on now for 8 or 9 years.
We spent a good amount of time saying goodbye today. Telling stories about this crazy cat and all the things he has done. From traveling cross country not once, not twice, but four times…. to pulling stunts at the vets office so much that they put some secret code on his chart that meant the equivalent of "cat goes buckwild crazy without warning"….. to deciding it would be his job to give all the other cats a bath… and he took that job very seriously. We have many great memories.
So today was a hard day. At the last minute I started changing my mind. I just didn’t want to say goodbye to him.
Rest well, old friend.
So very sorry for your loss. The furry critters really become part of the family, don’t they? Hope you are all holding up OK.
I’m so sorry Kris. It’s so hard to let go of beloved pets even when we know it’s for the best. At least Spike has many many great playmates over the rainbow bridge, I’ll bet my Jaxon would love a good Spike bath
I hope AG is doing ok and my condolences to all of you!
PS- That pic of AG in Lorette’s glasses is priceless, she look so grown up!
I’m so sorry about your kitty. They do become family members, don’t they? How’s AG handling it?
I’m so sorry to hear about Spike.
Hi Kris! I’m not sure how Typepad works but I’m positive they have some sort of embiggen fearture. I use blogger and I either upload my pics thru Blogger, Photobucket or Hello and all three give me options to adjust settings for # of pixels for the original and the “archive” which is actually the embiggen pic. If you tell me how you upload pics I could have a look around for you.
Hi Kris,
I’ve been reading and enjoying your blog for some time now, but never commented. But I wanted to speak up and say how sorry I am about your kitty. I recently lost my beloved kitty (rather out of the blue, while we were on vacation) and so I know how very hard it is. I hope your daughter is handling it okay, as well as you and your husband.
Carrie
Hi, I just bounced over from Laurie’s knitting spots post and happened to see this post. I am so sorry. Yesterday afternoon my mother made the same decision for one of our kitties who had been with us for 17 years also. She had a lot of stomach troubles that simply weren’t going to get better. It’s hard, even when you know it’s the right thing to do. I hope you guys are all doing well. Warm thoughts.