drawn by ImanThe weekend past had to be one of our saddest ever, since my mom passed. We had to make an extremely heartachy painful decision that would remove a much-loved member of our family permanently from our lives.... And it would've been my mom's 74th birthday on Sunday, the 15th.
Our tomcat, Podge who has been with us since 1995, had developed an extremely painful looking sore on his right ear. Medication was prescribed and applied to no avail. At times it looked like it was on the point of healing, then it'd flare up again.. So off to the vets we went again a couple of weeks ago; this time he was prescribed antibiotics and some eardrops. A week went by and instead of getting any better, he became weaker,even lost his appetite but seemed extremely thirsty all the time. He was also not able to stand or walk. We took him back to the vet immediately.
This time I told the vet to find out whether he was diabetic. That was done and he was not, but his kidneys had shrunk to a rather alarming size. And then the vet did another test. It was the findings of that test which led us to make that extremely heart-wrenching decision. The test that he did was the FIV test - pretty much like the HIV tests done on humans. Yes, it was confirmed, our much-loved tomcat had caught the virus. He had FIDS. And it was fatal. And though not transmittable to humans, in the advanced stages; other animals living in the same vicinity could be infected. That translated to Fluffy, our pet rabbit.
The moment the vet pronounced the verdict and described what was going to happen from thereon, I had to rush out of the surgery. An equally alarmed Iman followed closely behind, not quite understanding that the death sentence on her cat was being meted out - until she saw my tears! In between sobs, I had to explain to my little princess about the 'no choice' but very very painful decision that we had to make... I don't believe my little girl had cried that much and that loud even at her grandma's passing. She almost brought the whole surgery down!! In between the sobs, she would have it known that she was not leaving without her cat. No way! Amidst trying to pacify her and bawling my head off myself, (I know, I know, Raybans, you don't have to say it, I know) I had to literally carry her to the car.
Thank goodness hubby was around- and since he's made of sterner stuff than the women in his life, he had to bear witness to the procedure and carry the lifeless body of our pet back into the car. He also had to perform the "burial rituals" - Iman couldn't bear to watch, she had to turn away as the dad lowered Podge into the ground. We said our goodbyes and as we headed back into the house to contemplate our loss, I told my still crying daughter that she could write some things about Podgy cat that she loved the most in her journal, to help her heal. She promptly did that and this is what she wrote:-
Our tomcat, Podge who has been with us since 1995, had developed an extremely painful looking sore on his right ear. Medication was prescribed and applied to no avail. At times it looked like it was on the point of healing, then it'd flare up again.. So off to the vets we went again a couple of weeks ago; this time he was prescribed antibiotics and some eardrops. A week went by and instead of getting any better, he became weaker,even lost his appetite but seemed extremely thirsty all the time. He was also not able to stand or walk. We took him back to the vet immediately.
This time I told the vet to find out whether he was diabetic. That was done and he was not, but his kidneys had shrunk to a rather alarming size. And then the vet did another test. It was the findings of that test which led us to make that extremely heart-wrenching decision. The test that he did was the FIV test - pretty much like the HIV tests done on humans. Yes, it was confirmed, our much-loved tomcat had caught the virus. He had FIDS. And it was fatal. And though not transmittable to humans, in the advanced stages; other animals living in the same vicinity could be infected. That translated to Fluffy, our pet rabbit.
The moment the vet pronounced the verdict and described what was going to happen from thereon, I had to rush out of the surgery. An equally alarmed Iman followed closely behind, not quite understanding that the death sentence on her cat was being meted out - until she saw my tears! In between sobs, I had to explain to my little princess about the 'no choice' but very very painful decision that we had to make... I don't believe my little girl had cried that much and that loud even at her grandma's passing. She almost brought the whole surgery down!! In between the sobs, she would have it known that she was not leaving without her cat. No way! Amidst trying to pacify her and bawling my head off myself, (I know, I know, Raybans, you don't have to say it, I know) I had to literally carry her to the car.
Thank goodness hubby was around- and since he's made of sterner stuff than the women in his life, he had to bear witness to the procedure and carry the lifeless body of our pet back into the car. He also had to perform the "burial rituals" - Iman couldn't bear to watch, she had to turn away as the dad lowered Podge into the ground. We said our goodbyes and as we headed back into the house to contemplate our loss, I told my still crying daughter that she could write some things about Podgy cat that she loved the most in her journal, to help her heal. She promptly did that and this is what she wrote:-
“No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.” Leo F. Buscaqlia
- how true, how very, very true.
3 comments:
a cat like no other. will miss his silly antics alot :(
Poor Podge ... you did the right thing. Remember him with smiles, laughter and tears. Pets are part of our family.
cypher, how can i forget that manja face of his? I can remember all those times when I was preggers with Iman and when I went to have a lie-down on the couch, he would make himself at home on my 'bump' and take his catnaps there! No wonder she loved him so!
topm, definitely a part of our family. He was such a good-natured cat with a kindly face to boot!
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