RIP, my sweetheart

Kitty, my well-traveled and sweet cat, died this morning.  I woke up and she wasn't at the foot of the bed, but sometimes she's sleeping on a pillow on the living room floor.  She wasn't there either.  I saw her sitting on the floor in the living room and thought all was okay.  It wasn't.  She walked to my bedroom door and fell on her side.  I guess she'd gone to the living room to eat, sleep or visit one of her litter boxes: one close to the bedroom door and the other closer in the corner of the living room. She had two because 19 years for a cat is equal to 92 human years, I was making her senior years easy.

I scooped her up right away and then I started freaking out.  However, Kitty could tell when I was upset.  I pulled it together, put her on her pillow and started looking up emergency vet centers. (Remember, I just moved here in August.)  I chose the Animal Medical Center on 62nd St and York Ave.

She got a bit spirited this morning. She realized she was unable to get from point A to point B and that made her really upset. When she started getting really upset, I put her in her travel bag. She's used to it. It is soft, and she knows I'm not far away when she's in it. It's a long story but I realized when I moved to Korea in 2000 that, for her, home was where I was (by 2000 we'd be together for 10 years). I'd left her in San Francisco because I thought she'd be more comfortable there. Then got reports she was terrorizing the girl subleasing my room (ooops).  I made arrangements to get her immediately and never left her anywhere after that.

Somewhere between leaving my apartment and getting to the vet this morning she died. I checked on her a few times en route and it didn't look like she was breathing. I was just hoping that maybe her breathing was shallow and a magic shot would make her okay again. 

19 years is a long and full life for a cat.

People are telling me she was lucky to have me. However, I was incredibly lucky to have her too.

She was with me through a lot. She was there when:

• I lost my parents 5-weeks apart from each other (she was a mere tot - around 4 years old then)
• I moved to San Francisco for law school (just a few months later)
• I moved to Korea and living there for 8 years with me (I moved in August 2000; I came back to get her in December 2000.)

She was:

• a trooper of a traveler when we moved back (March 2009)
• a trooper of a traveler from San Francisco to Philadelphia (May 2009) - sat on my lap in the airport and let me pet and feed her (what cat does that?)
  
• a trooper of a traveler from Philadelphia to Manhattan (August 2009)

Between the two of us, I was the lucky one.

Hanging out with me after I fell face first on Memorial Day weekend due to low blood sugar (common for diabetics - the low blood sugar, not the head impact) and went to the ER for stitches.

RIP my sweetheart.  Thanks for putting up with me.

She ALWAYS walked on or sat on my laptop (I think I paid it way too much attention for her liking.)

More Kitty laptop hate ;-)

To my feline baby:
Barbra Streisand - Evergreen Love Theme Froma S Mp3

(of course, the code isn't fixed and there is no way I'm doing it today - the "read more" link doesn't work.)

Sphere: Related Content