Topic for our feline friends at the Rainbow Bridge

[Kirsten]

Let's start a topic here to remember our kitties that have already gone to the Rainbow Bridge. Friends that are gone but not forgotten...

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I had to say good bye to two kitty friends already.

The first one was my Aysche (1984 - 1986).

http://home.t-online.de/home/0554132997-0002/aysche.jpg

The time she was on earth was very short. She was a persian, my very first cat and a real sweetheart. She showed the first symptoms of illness when she was only 6 months old, but it was the day of her death in March 1986 when we learned that the poor baby got FIP, probably already infected from her mom. I was devastated because when you get a cat, you expect her to live with you at least for 10 or 12 years, and Aysche was so young... I wasn't prepared for it and it was just not fair. She was so young and got this horrible disease! A real shock!

My next cat was my Katz (1986 - 2000).

http://home.t-online.de/home/0554132997-0002/katz1.jpg

She was my best friend for many years and is still terribly missed. She lived with me for 14 years and I couldn't imagine to live without her. At Easter 2000, she had been diagnosed with severe heart failure and liquids in her lungs and abdomen, and even though she was put on medication immediately, her poor body gave up the fight only 9 days later. When she broke down and was unable to walk, I've decided to put her to sleep. A hard and sad decision, but easy at the same time, because didn't want her to suffer any longer. Katz left an emptiness in my life that is very hard to put in words...
Getting baby Luna a few weeks later helped tp ease the pain, but it's still hard to believe that my beloved Katz is gone forever...

Kirsten

[4 feline house]

Even not counting all my fosters, all my roommates' cats, and all the other little ones who were in my life temporarily, I still have a sadly too-long list:
Zebo - my first cat after I left home, a sweet fat mama's boy, a gray tabby, he died at 14 of kidney disease
Brie - solid black, disappeared when he was about age 2 when the landlord left the door open while fixing the A/C while I was at work
Pogo (Brie's brother) - a beautiful blue glossy boy disappeared a few months after Brie when I was critically ill in the hospital for several weeks and my cats were being shuttled from friend to family
Bunky - a beautiful, silky long haired solid black kitty with a wonderful sense of humor, hit by a car during the same hospitalization when my mom refused to close her cat door as long as she had foster cats, he was probably about 3 or 4
Toot - my only orange boy, and another mama's boy, but loud as a siamese, disappeared when my roommate's kid let him out when he was about 7
Yankee - a feisty little calico, died in an accident when she was four
Doodle (Boosie) - Yankee's sister, a tortie-point who "did tricks" (she would head-butt the floor and roll right over in a somersault!), she died with Yankee
Cosmo- a beige long haired, possibly my most favorite of all my cats, past and present. I still grieve for my little fuzzbutt. Such a character! And so beautiful! I could fill up a whole topic just on the little guy. He died when he was two, in the same accident that took Yankee and Boosie, who are a close second and third in my list of most-loved cats. They've been at the bridge over two years now, and I still think of at least one of them daily.

But I love my current four so very much, too, and I hope they all stay around longer than Zebo! I have no roommates, my landlord does not have a key so cannot come over unless I'm home, and I have told all my friends that in no circumstances does my mom ever get my cats! I also watch for potential accidents. They are also inside cats (excpet Peaches who loves to escape) so hopefully I now have all the bases covered!

[Kirsten]

Spencer, this is a very sad story! At least these two poor sick kitties left our world with the knowledge that there was somebody who cared...
But I can also understand VERY WELL how scared you must have been that one of your own cats could have been infected with leukemia, it's a horrible disease!

4 feline house, you're right, that's a very long list! :( Some people say it's getting easier when you're losing so many, but I think it doesn't. Saying good bye is something you never get used to!

Kirsten

[nsweezie]

My very first cat, Quetzel, was 16 or so when she died. She was a wonderful cat, she had just about every cat color on her. My parents found her in the woods starving to death when the lived in Newfoundland in the early 70's. When I was younger we moved around alot, and when Quetzel was older we were living in Chicago. The summer she died my family was moving back to eastern Canada, and we really hoped that she would live long enough to go home. Unfortunatly she died in her sleep, but I was so glad to have her for so long.
My first cat of my own was Saxony, a black/white tuxedo male. He was probably the friendliest cat I've ever known. He was run over one winter night at the age of 3, and I was devestated, but made the decision to keep any other cat I would have as an indoor cat.
My next cat was Oopee, a solid white female. She had been badly mistreated as a kitten, and was consequently very jumpy, and not particularly friendly to anyone else besides me, expecially to men. But she was so loving to me, and she was such a cute, round little cat. Unfortunatly she got out one night, and did not return. I still hold out hope 9 years later that she might return.
Chelsea came after Oopee. He was cat of the day this past Sunday. You can read his story at http://catoftheday.com/archive/2001/October/14.html , boy do I still miss him.
It is my greatest hope that my current two, Clyde and Scooter live to be old, old cats!

[Kirsten]

I'm so sorry about your losses, nsweezie and feline!

I saw Chelsea on Cat of the Day the other day, very touching.

Feline, this is a beautiful tribute that you've made.
I also made a pet cemetery website when my Katz died last year ( www.pet-cemetery.de.vu (http://www.pet-cemetery.de.vu) ), it is a good way to deal with the loss.

Kirsten