Monday, May 1, 2017

Goodbye My Dear Friend



When my husband and I first moved into our house 10 years ago, I dearly wanted to add a dog to our home. I'd always wanted a dog and had been watching the local SPCA listings daily. We finally decided to go see if one would fit our family.

While there, I saw an orange and white cat. Unlike the other cats in their tiny cages, he was vigorously rubbing on the bars, desperate for a pet. I fell in love. We still wanted a dog and we found one who appeared to fit, but I still wanted to add this one cat as well, so we asked if there was a way we could see how the dog would react to cats.

The staff walked the dog through the cat room. She happily took no notice of the cats. Every cat who saw her puffed up to twice their size, all except the orange and white boy I'd been admiring. It seemed fate. We adopted both.

The dog was an adorable corgi mix we named Emma. She was silly and opinionated and strangely smelled of corn chips no matter how often we bathed her. (Sadly, she was a car chaser. One day she dug under our fence and the vet couldn't save her.) The cat we named Winston. Winston was the most loving cat I've ever met. He never met a lap he didn't love. If you weren't paying attention, he would walk behind you and make biscuits on the back of your leg.


Lately Winston's health had been going down. He was hardly keeping food in, so I took him to the vet. Last week, we came face-to-face with a terrible diagnosis. Winston had developed cancer we could not afford to treat. If we did nothing, he was looking at a slow death and I couldn't do that to my boy. He didn't deserve to waste away. So with a heavy heart, we agreed to have him put down.

My heart is broken, but I'm grateful my kitty is no longer in pain. But I miss him.

Sorry for such a downer of a post today, but I wanted to be real with all my life and I wanted to share with you my cat, who was one of the best cats I've ever known.


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