(no subject)
RIP Limpy 1.11.1991 - 29.9.2008
He had a tumour in his bladder. He first became ill about a month ago and the vet couldn't feel the tumour in him then, said it could be either malignancy or just cystitis, and prescribed some antibiotics, hoping it was the latter. Limpy showed considerable improvement in the following few weeks, but declined sharply this week. Yesterday he couldn't walk, eat or drink and was obviously in pain. The vet poked him a bit and this time found the tumour very easily, saying it was now nearly the whole size of his bladder and had grown really fast over the last month. He said that euthanasia was the best option, since even if the tumour were to be removed, Limpy wouldn't have had enough bladder left to function properly and the chances of cancer recurring were too great. Mum, Grandma, Anthony and I were there - we said goodbye and Limpy was put to sleep, with Mum stroking him all the way.
Mum rescued him from someone who was planning on drowning him when he was only about six weeks old. She originally didn't plan on keeping him longer than needed to find him a home. He was first given to my uncle, then to my grandmother (who complains that she was his owner when he was going through the expensive neutering and vaccinations phase) and finally reverted to Mum, but even when he wasn't technically hers, he made his preference known. He always slept in Mum's bed, wrapped around her head, clawing her scalp and dribbing in her ears when he was little, but thankfully he grew out of that! They were meant to be, and I'm sure she's the one he would have wanted to be with him at the end.
He was a handsome cat too, always was - cute as a kitten, just a little black powder puff with green eyes. As he aged the eyes yellowed, the muscles grew, the scars multiplied, but that just gave him character. In his elder years the black was shot through with grey on his shoulders and head, and one of his whiskers turned a distinguished white.
So he had a sad story, a lifelong love, good looks, and he was certainly full of personality. Now who will protect Mum's front yard from marauding local dogs? No Husky was safe under Limpy's reign. Who will sit on plates and bowls left lying around? Tiger and Star will lick them clean if you let them, but Limpy was the only one who saw dinner plates as seating. The local wildlife will be safer, at least (although admittedly Limpy slowed down with the hunting over the last few years). He conducted a one-cat, fifteen-year crusade against the park's possums, although they're still far from endangered despite his best efforts. Of course he also went after plenty of birds, rats, mice, geckoes and once even a bat, although we're still not sure if he had the bat or if the bat had him. (The bat lived, just so you know - Mum took it off him and rang the government, whose wildlife people came and rescued it.) We tried the old collar with a bell, but the first week we put it on him he brought in a possum his own size, so we just took it off - there was clearly no point.
He was a crazy, soppy, violent, whiny old bastard of a cat. We'll miss him.