(no subject)
I went to bed around 10:30 or 11 last night, scratched Aslan on the head on my way - he was sleeping in the living room on the rocking chair.
Sometime around 2AM I woke up to a weird noise, part cough part choke part meow. I sent Donnie to investigate. He told me Aslan was coughing up a hairball. But that wasn't any kind of hairball noise I'd ever heard, so I went to go look. Aslan was crouched under the rocking chair making this noise, his mouth wide open, his fur all standing up. I just watched him for a few minutes, then I went to go get Donnie again. It kind of looked like he might be choking on something, so we both threw on some clothes so we could go take a closer look without getting scratched/bitten. After putting on my glasses, I noticed foamy saliva dripping from his mouth and he had also started darting around the living room and basically going nuts. Of course, first thought: Rabies. But he got his rabies shot back in March. But still. It was kind of freaking us out, and after a closer look we saw that what had looked like something dangling from his mouth was just the saliva. Despite him having had his rabies shot, we were still kind of freaked out. Donnie called 911 and the dispatcher got ahold of the animal control officer in Westfield for us. After describing what was happening, he said it sounded not like rabies, especially since he'd had his shot, but it sounded like he was having a seizure. So he gave us the number for an animal hospital that has emergency services. We called them, and they said that the fact that he'd now been seizing for going on half an hour was not good news. They said we could bring him in, but they probably wouldn't be able to do much for him because most seizures only last for a few minutes and by that time he'd probably have severe brain damage anyways. Not to mention the cost of an emergency midnight vet visit. So we made the decision to wait till morning to decide what to do. While Donnie was on the phone with the vet, he'd stopped running around in circles and he'd just collapsed on the ground, panting very quickly and still making weird choking/meowing noises but not quite so loud anymore. At that point we decided that he probably wasn't a threat, even though the vet warned that a seizing animal can be dangerous. So we wrapped him up in a towel and sat on the couch with him for a while. He wasn't moving at all except for the panting and jerking his head up once in a while. I don't think he could see, actually, because if I put my hand in front of his face etc. he didn't have any reaction.
He died an hour and a half later, around 4:30AM.
Donnie called the animal control officer this morning. In order to get a cause of death, the body would have to be sent away for an autopsy, which costs somewhere between $1400-$1500. After hearing what happened he said the most likely cause of death was poisoning, antifreeze or rat poison or something like that from someone's garage since he's an outdoor cat.
When I first got Aslan he was so tiny and skinny and he had fleas. The rest of his litter had died so I fully expected him to follow. He didn't. He always seemed so invincible to me after that. He got big and strong and developed the best personality I've ever seen in a cat. I'll never forget the day I was laying on the bed reading and he brought a ball to me - he wanted to play fetch. Sometimes during the middle of the night I'd wake up with him sprawled out over my chest with his nose by my chin purring in my face. I've never seen a dog and cat get along like he and Tanya did, they were like brother and sister. They would sleep together, play together, get annoyed at each other... Tanya's gone to the door a few times already and started whining for Aslan to come in.
It's not fair, the way it happened.
I keep hoping that maybe it didn't happen at all, and the next time I open the door he'll slip inside and greet me with that little meow that's almost like talking.