Hi. We lost our eldest cat, named Angel, last night. Terry found her lying on our bedroom floor when he got home from work, cold and not very responsive. He immediately took her to the Vet. They did some bloodwlrk that showed that she was dehydrated, but not much else. So they did some more blood work that showed that she was in kidney failure with liver complications. They said there wasn't much they could do for her. Terry called me at work around 4:30 initially to let me know what was going on at that point. He didn't have any of the blood test results back at that point, but said it wasn't good. He called me again at various times to keep me updated.
I called and asked the people who work at the Vet's if they could let me in to see her if I got there after they closed at 5:30 p.m. They agreed to do that. So I went in and saw her and said her name, and she lifted one of her front paws and moved her head a little bit in response to me. I know she knew that I was there. Jay, the Vet, had left to go to some meetings, but we were able to make arrangements to take Angel home with us until he was finished with his meetings, at which time he would call us and have us bring her back over to the Vet. Clinic so that he could euthanize her if she was still alive by that time. I held her from the time we left there until the time we took her back to his office around 9:30 p.m. I didn't want her to be alone when she died.
Our hearts are absolutely broken. This was very unexpected. She has seemed fine, and recently even had her yearly checkup at the Vet's and got a good report. She was seven years old, would have been 8 years old July 1st. Jay did an ultrasound of her kidneys and noticed some areas where there were cysts, and said that showed that even when she was born her kidneys were not fully functioning. He said he was surprised that she had lived as long as she did under the circumstances.
She had a rough start in life. She was born on a farm near St. Paul. Her mother was killed by some kind of animal and the family found the kittens two days later. They bottle fed them until they were old enough to start them on canned food. That's when we got her. She was eight weeks old at the time but only weighed 8 ounces---the size of a two-week old kitten. She had worms and had to be treated for those. And she had to eat prescription diet food for her health condition. But she thrived and grew and was a beautiful cat---blue eyes, Siamese in appearance in a lot of ways. She always lived up to her name, too. She was an absolute Angel, especially when compared to our other cats around here, who are little brats at times!
I guess that's about all for now. Except Jay gave us a "Cat Angel Pin" showing a cat with angel wings and a halo attached. It says "wear this special angel pin as a symbol of your love for your precious little pet protected from above." How appropriate for a cat named "Angel"!
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