When he was 9, back in 2005, I began to notice that he drank. Before I had never caught him in that act. We got him to the vet and had to hear that his kidney began to fail. He got fluids and diet food and he loved even the diet food. For some years all went well. He had his weekly appointment with his friend Trude, the vet and with all the nice vet assistants who were just as charmed as we were. Then, 1,5 years ago he had a first crisis which scared us very much. He overcame it with flying colors but he strated to seriously lose weight. He had been 7 lbs when healthy but he lost half a pound after the other and was thin- but continued his life as a shoulder sitter. He began to prefer being carried on the shoulder to walking himself and climbed our trousers (or naked legs- ouch) to get to his outlook place.
His diet became very special: kitten food, treats, fresh chicken- sometimes I offered him 3 fresh puches before he decided he will have a bite.
This spring he became thinner and weaker. Beginning of May there was the first time when he didn’t eat for 3 days. We thought that would be the end of his life but he came back J He spent 10 days here at home with my sister, her husband and doxie Amber while we went on vacation. And he was eating happily when we came back.
But his eating became less predictable. He might go a day or a night without food. His last pictures show how thin he became, how rough his fur was and how his eyes changed their expression:
He spent a lot of time in the position of the last picture and only short times in his favorite tortellini positions.
Dearest Filou, to let you go was the hardest decision of my life. You have been my little prince and now you are a memory only – a memory on my shoulder, on my duvet on top of my legs, in your favorite places in the sun.
I miss you so.
The Abyssinian Cat
His amber eyes, his tiger face,
They speak of jungles, sight-unseen,
Or Abyssinian desert place,
Where my small cat has never been.
His throaty purr, his paw embrace,
The way he always follows me,
Define the central heart-home place
Where my small cat will always be.
a poem by Jean Gorton
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