OK, Universe! No More Cats! (warning for graphic descriptions of death)
I... love cats more than humanly possible, I think. So... Many of you know about my darling Sukkara, my sweet kitty who was stolen/let out last year. I swore I'd never get another cat, then was weakened by an adorable orange cat, looked like an adult but was in fact a 7-month-old Persian. I first saw him at a pet shop maybe three weeks ago. (Pet shops here are kind of like shelters abroad, I think, from what my friends tell me: they have many cats whose owners didn't want them, abandoned (=sold) them, etc., and the conditions there are awful, mostly.) He was so starved for affection, purred when I petted him, put out a hand through the bars when I closed the cage. NO NO NO NO, no more cats, I said. Couldn't stop thinking about him. Came back to see him with a friend - they told me he'd been sold, but then said "Oh, him? Yeah..." He was huddled in the lowest, darkest, furthest corner of the cage, completely lost the will to live. I picked him up and didn't let him go till he was in my car. My friend insisted we go get him checked out by a vet immediately, and we did, gave him pills, flea medication, the whole thing. Then I took him home. 2 days of nothing but purring. But he hardly ate. The third day, he started to look sick. I took him to the vet, who said he had a very serious ear infection that was usually fatal in cats, on top of gastroenteritis that was usually fatal in cats. He gave him shots of antibiotics, vitamins, glucose, anti-emetics, everything, and for 4 days i took him to the vet to give him the shots. I was wondering when he would get better or not, as I am travelling tomorrow for 5 days. Anyway, yesterday he got worse, and I took him home and sat with him until he died. Not like Hollywood, he shuddered and all this clear fluid came out of his mouth... Anyway, I sat with him until his trembling stopped, even after he'd stopped breathing, and then wrapped him in a shirt and went downstairs and dug a grave and buried him in the front garden in front of our apartment house.
I have a lot of thoughts, namely Allie's cartoon in which she says of people who are depressed, "Do you know that there are people with pets who have died?" Which isn't really an excuse, I only had him 5 days. Also, how weird is it that I'm 40 and it took me this long to watch something die? I'd never seen death before. I'm not going to say anymore because there are people reading this who've seen actual death, i.e. in humans.
But anyway: I figure this is a sign that I really, really need to lay off the cats for a while.
I have a lot of thoughts, namely Allie's cartoon in which she says of people who are depressed, "Do you know that there are people with pets who have died?" Which isn't really an excuse, I only had him 5 days. Also, how weird is it that I'm 40 and it took me this long to watch something die? I'd never seen death before. I'm not going to say anymore because there are people reading this who've seen actual death, i.e. in humans.
But anyway: I figure this is a sign that I really, really need to lay off the cats for a while.