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The Howard County Cat Club, A No-Kill Cat Rescue In Columbia, MD

Kitty: The final chapter

12/24/2012

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Kitty on our balcony
Last Tuesday, Kitty stopped eating. But even before that, I'd noticed some other changes. She didn't growl at cats who dared to enter her (my) bedroom. She tried out different chairs and beds and cat baskets in my apartment. She asked to go outside. She still sat at the entrance to the kitchen and watched me with disapproval written all over her face if I gave her the wrong food. But she seemed slower, calmer, slightly less engaged. I wanted to think she was finally settling in and had decided she wanted our home to be her home forever. But a tiny part of me wondered if she was okay, or if something might be wrong.Tuesday night, I took her to the local emergency room, and blood tests showed she had severe unregenerative anemia. When I spoke to my vet the next day, she agreed with the ER doctor that Kitty needed to see a specialist. I chose the referral hospital in Towson, although that might have been a mistake. After three days of testing and imaging and living in a cage in a brightly-lit room surrounded by barking dogs, Kitty was diagnosed with pancreatitis and possible, or probable, lymphoma or mast cell disease. The tests showed no signs of cancer, but the doctors were sure it was there, lurking, waiting to be found. But they agreed that I shouldn't subject my precious Kitty to more tests just yet.

At home, she didn't eat on her own, and she rarely left her bed on the vanity in my bathroom. I gave her fluids and what seemed like truckloads of pills and liquid medications and syringed food into her three or four times a day. But nothing seemed to make any difference at all, and although I tried to be optimistic, I felt that the end was near.

On our last night together, I sat with her and told her how much I loved her. I congratulated her on getting adopted again, this time by me, and promised that she would never, ever again be "returned" to a shelter. She purred, but I sensed that the Kitty I knew and loved was no longer there.

The Kitty I knew talked nonstop and always let me know exactly what was on her mind. She sat on the pillows beside mine and purred me to sleep every night. She loved to dip her paw into her food and lick the food off the paw (messy, but cute). And she did the same thing with water. Her larger than life personality always made me laugh.

Her story doesn't have the happy ending I envisioned. But for her, maybe it was a happy ending, after all. She was in her forever, really forever, home with someone who loved and respected her. For a cat who had been kicked around by heartless humans her entire life, maybe that was a happy ending. I hope so, but I wish it hadn't come so soon.


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Cosmo

12/23/2012

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Cosmo already had an appointment for a lethal injection when his human decided to try one last rescue. It wasn't that Cosmo was a "bad" cat. In fact, he was his mom's best friend. But she'd been assigned to travel in Europe for a year, and no family members, friends or rescue groups were willing to keep him while she was overseas.

We'd been "stuck" with cats whose families never returned for them before, and we were a bit hesitant about Cosmo. But he didn't deserve to die... His mom signed a contract specifying the date she'd return for him, promised to keep in touch and delivered her buddy to our group home.

While she was traveling, he had a great year hanging out with his cat friends and snuggling with the volunteers. As the date for his reunion with his mom approached, we began making plans. She and Cosmo would be moving to Italy, and all of us wanted to make sure his arrangements to fly in the cabin with her were in order.

As a farewell gift, we gave him a soft fleece harness and leash to wear on the trip. She was nervous about their reunion and worried for weeks that he wouldn't remember her. He did, of course. It was a long trip for our boy but worth it to be with his mom again. The two of them are living with happily ever after in a lovely country home with a fenced garden in Italy.   

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    Author

    Missy Zane is president of the Howard County Cat Club and has lived with cats and loved them for as long as she can remember.

    These are some of our favorite cat rescue stories. We hope you enjoy them.

    Categories

    All
    A Day In The Life Of
    Aurora
    Best Friends
    Cherokee: Happy At Last
    Cosmo
    Davey And Goliath: Mr. Mom
    Hoss
    Jasmine And Company
    Kitty: A Work In Progress
    Kitty: The Final Chapter
    Leonardo And Friends
    Mrs. P
    Music To His Ears
    Patches And Lea
    Puck
    Taylor: Lost And Found
    The Pfisters Cats
    Tornado Kitty


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