Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Time's Winged Chariot

This coming weekend is Easter in the Orthodox Christian Churches. To all our readers in those faiths - Happy Easter.

Not much to write about tonight I'm afraid. Not really in the mood.

One of my cousin's cats (she has four) is dying. She's a good age - 18 - and as is often the case with older cats her kidneys are packing up. She's not suffering yet, the vet says. But she's not eating, she's barely drinking, she's losing weight and she's tottering around on very weak legs. She hasn't got long, and I'm kind of hoping she'll just pass away gently in her sleep. Otherwise it's down to the vet for the needle at the first sign she's in pain. Which is the kind thing to do but is definitely hard on the owner.

All her cats are quite old. This one has a full sibling who also probably hasn't got long, having had a stroke (which she recovered quite well from), a couple of months ago. The other two are boys - one 17 and one 16.

My cousin is already upset. She'll be devastated when it finally happens. I'm a bit sad myself but I'm trying to offer as much support as I can.

It's a bastard when beloved pets die - and they live so much shorter lives than we do so it's a fairly common occurrence. It never gets any easier though. They're not just pets - they're family.

If you have any companion animals - give them an extra hug tonight, from us.

Goodnight and may your God/s go with you.


Ze

4 comments:

E said...

Sadly I had to put one of my kitties down in Febraury and unfortunately I have another that is currently in the vet trying to figure what is wrong with her bone marrow, hence good chance I will have to make some tough decisions. Damn animals, why can't they outlive me. It's really hard, I miss my kitties.

Anonymous said...

Ze, thanks for the acknowledging that pets are family. Once again a great ramble. Indeed my cat meant I missed a programme on Dave Allen on Monday, I suspect from your salutation you'll understand the significance.

zero2aries said...

E - sorry to hear that mate - hope your cat is ok.

zero2aries said...

Anon - of course they're family. And absolutely - big fan of Dave Allen - and, as you guessed, it's where I got my sign-off from - adapted from his famous sign-off line