Sunday, August 22, 2010

Tess: 1992-2010. One very old, very sweet cat.



Today my family lost a great pet and one of my oldest friends.
Tess was a good cat. A really good, sweet, lovey cat. She was the family cat, though technically mine and my oldest brother Jason's, but essentially she was mine. This was decided when, after maybe a year of this skittish little kitty running away from everyone, she hopped up on the couch next to me and immediately starting purring and pawing at me. From then on, she was my cat. She slept in my room every night and pawed and purred so much I frequently had to shove her off the bed.

She was lovey, and she very much deserved the good life she had. She saw me through most of elementary, middle and high schools, college, and grad school. 18 years is a lot for the tiniest maine coon in all the land. I love her dearly and have been missing her all day, much more than usual, of course.

I wish I had better pictures, because this little lady helped me through many a sobfest and sleepless night growing up. She let me dress her up in doll clothes and walk her around the house in a plastic baby carraige. Basically, she put up with all kind of my shit from childhood through adulthood and was ever the sweetest little thing.

But she couldn't see and she couldn't here, and it's unlikely any of that was going to be fixed. If we fixed her thyroid it would knock her kidneys out of wack even more and confining a fluffy helen keller to a bathroom (loss of bladder and bowel control was becoming an issue) while forcing medicine that probably won't even work down her throat....Yeah, I made the call to go ahead.

As sad as it made me, I know it was right. She really is in a better place, and we buried her in the yard at home. She joined the ranks of Kip, Bootsie, and ...some other pet my mother had as a child today. I'm going to go plant flowers over her tomorrow. :)