Today was goodbye

Thank you all so much for your kind words, and for sharing your own stories of loss. It's so touching to hear how much we all loved our companions.
It went from a bright, gorgeous day to dreary and rainy soon after I got home, which matches my mood.

Sara,


My thoughts and prayers are with you, I know how very difficult a decision it is, even when we know it's the best decision. I lost my college kitty four years ago, and it still hurts. He also declined quickly. I don't know if you are familiar with the Rainbow Bridge poem, but it always brought me comfort:

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.



They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Zane looks like a fabulously gorgeous boy...I love the shape of his face.

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss; he sounds like he was one of those personalities that are part of your life long after the body is gone.

I had a hateful crusty old black cat that I adopted from an elderly lady who couldn't keep him anymore and tearfully brought him in to be put to sleep. She swore he'd never been sick a day in the fifteen years she'd had him. Turns out he was diabetic, hyperthyroid, in early kidney failure, and had a mouth full of rotting broken teeth. He was a grouchy old man; hated the other cats, and slept drooling on my pillow for the next 14 months. I had to wear a headscarf when I wanted to sleep because he would knead my hair with his paws and actually pull on it.

One day he became blocked, and although we unblocked him, he didn't have enough bladder tone left to be able to urinate on his own. We spent a week putting him under full anesthesia every day to express his bladder (partial sedation didn't begin to relax him enough...he was such a cranky old boy).
When he still didn't regain bladder tone, we were faced with either a permanent urinary catheter or a delicate and complicated surgery and I just couldn't put him through that. He was such a fierce old man, but very frail by that point and there were no options that would not cause him immense suffering.

It will be three years in June since he passed, and I can still hear his horrible raspy purr and the wheezing snarl he made when he ate. I miss hiim dearly.

I am very sorry for the loss of your beauty Zane:(

Robin, thank you for sharing that, it was really sweet :)

Jess, I had to laugh at the stories of your cranky old cat. Zane was the same, very fierce until the end. I will definitely always feel his loss, as well.

And thanks Zekesmom....Zane truly was a gorgeous cat. I'm actually going to miss having all that black fur all over my beige carpets, as one of his funny quirks was that he never ingested his hair like other cats, he left huge piles of it on the floor after cleaning himself. He never once coughed up a hairball in his life. Crazy cat.

Aww hon I'm so sorry to read of Zane's passing but glad for his sake and yours that you made this hardest of decisions to let him go in peace and dignity. You'll never stop missing him, I know I have never stopped missing my two beloved kittes, Barney and Puss Cat who lived 16 and 18 years in our family. In time though the tears become healing ones and you simply remember the joy and blessing of a shared bond with a furry friend.

I found this poem long ago when we lost our cats a year apart. I just loved the image of it....I hope it brings you some comfort and a smile during this sad time....

http://www.punkin.net/catheaven.htm

It came from this website....

http://sandtracker.tripod.com/cat-tracks.html

Thank you, Jo, that poem did make me smile. I am really looking forward to the day I can think of Zane and smile, too. Right now it's just....ugh.

That's okay hon, if it wasn't ugggh for awhile then you wouldn't be a caring person. For some odd reason our culture teaches us to be embarrassed by honest greaving. Personally I think of greaving as a tribute to a life that has moved on to another place and that it's healthy and right to both honor that life with my tears and allow myself the release of emotion that tears allow. Tears are the gift we were given to heal our hearts, express our feelings and cleanse our souls.

Awe Sarah, I am really sorry about your loss.. I wish you my deepest sympathies.

Very sorry about your loss. Our boy is like a furry child to us. It's so sad that they are never with us long enough. Sending hugs your way.:hug: :hug: