I set fire to the rain
My beautiful black cat, Midnight, died Sunday night. He was fifteen years old. He's been sick off and on the past few months, getting better and then getting worse again. A few days ago, he stopped eating or getting up; he snuggled down on his blanket and purred when my mom entered the room, and that was all. We had the vet check him over again and had Doss, who is going to veterinary grad school and who has known Midnight since my kitty was four years old, take a look at him too. The unanimous verdict was "He's old, he's tired, and he's basically just finished. You can let him waste away over the next weeks, starving to death and probably getting sores, or you can end it peacefully for him before he gets to that point." Mom had Doss put him to sleep Sunday night. Doss said he sat with him and petted him, and he went peacefully.
It sucks, but it's worse for my mom than for me, because I haven't lived with my cat since I graduated high school. Mom is the one he's been sleeping with and mock-attacking and meowing at (Midnight was an absurdly loud cat; we could hear him outside and down the driveway when he *purred*, much less meowed) for the last six and a half years. She's taking it pretty hard, so I'm glad I already had tentative plans to go to Shreveport this upcoming weekend.
When I got home from teaching yesterday morning, there was a black cat halfway up the tree on the other side of the fence right in front of me. He turned his head to look at me, and his eyes looked just like Midnight's, a peridot blend of pale green and washed gold. I smiled at him and opened the car door, and in the time it took me to get up, he'd slid back down the tree and vanished into the bushes. I saw the end of his tail wave, and I opened the gate and went through. I couldn't find the cat anywhere; I looked under the bushes and everything. I think it was Midnight saying goodbye, which might be sentimental but too bad ^^;;
I'm much more okay with this than I thought I would be, actually. It hurts a little, but Midnight was old and fading, and that's been apparent over the last year. I think I was kind of prepared for this without being aware of it. So ... yeah. I'm not devastated or anything, but I wanted to say something about it. I do miss him, which I knew I would.
Dai stiho, Midnight.
It sucks, but it's worse for my mom than for me, because I haven't lived with my cat since I graduated high school. Mom is the one he's been sleeping with and mock-attacking and meowing at (Midnight was an absurdly loud cat; we could hear him outside and down the driveway when he *purred*, much less meowed) for the last six and a half years. She's taking it pretty hard, so I'm glad I already had tentative plans to go to Shreveport this upcoming weekend.
When I got home from teaching yesterday morning, there was a black cat halfway up the tree on the other side of the fence right in front of me. He turned his head to look at me, and his eyes looked just like Midnight's, a peridot blend of pale green and washed gold. I smiled at him and opened the car door, and in the time it took me to get up, he'd slid back down the tree and vanished into the bushes. I saw the end of his tail wave, and I opened the gate and went through. I couldn't find the cat anywhere; I looked under the bushes and everything. I think it was Midnight saying goodbye, which might be sentimental but too bad ^^;;
I'm much more okay with this than I thought I would be, actually. It hurts a little, but Midnight was old and fading, and that's been apparent over the last year. I think I was kind of prepared for this without being aware of it. So ... yeah. I'm not devastated or anything, but I wanted to say something about it. I do miss him, which I knew I would.
Dai stiho, Midnight.