All you fur baby parents, I love living vicariously thru your stories! We lost our Buttons (Kitty, ds named her Buttons when we got her, he was 8, why he picked Buttons as the name, who knows?? I wasn't quilting/sewing then.). Her nickname became Butts. She was 5 wks, really too young to be taken from her mommy, but the people were doing it anyway..she was the "runt", our son took 1 look and wanted her. I had never had a pet..my mom wouldn't have any in the house, and any strays that showed up in our yard soon found homes elsewhere. (Mom swears she had nothing to do with why the kid across the street or a block over ended up with that dog or cat...yeah, riiiight..)
Anywhose, Butts lived to be almost 19 years old. She was loved by us all, but had a special bond with me. When Mom moved out with us, she even loved Butts! Buttons had started laying around lots more, lethargic, poor appetite. We took her to her Vet, all tests revealed nothing. She was 18 + yrs old, so Vet gently said, She is getting older guys..she's had a great life, and given y'all much enjoyment. He was kind about it, having been her Vet for whole time we had her. She had always eaten healthy food, and I admit, she loved her Pounce treats! To try and stimulate her appetite we tried diff foods, bought a pet fountain for her drinking water, even tried canned pumpkin...everything Vet had said was safe and worth a try..At one visit, he put her in oxygen cage..ended up trying her on a heart med. Last 2 wks of her life we tried everything. The last day she was laying right next to me, touching me, I could see she was having a time breathing..the last straw was she stood up and was literally trying to drag herself to her litter box to use the restroom. Hubby came in from work, and I told him I couldn't put her thru this anymore. It was selfish on my part. So we made the difficult decision to let her go.. I will say it was one of the hardest things I have done, hubby, too. I used to kinda laugh and even joke about why would someone be so "gaa gaa" over an animal??! Well, I ate crow with my foot in my mouth over those comments! Butts has been gone 4 yrs this past Labor Day. I still sometimes think I see her out of the corner of my eye..or when I get up in the night to visit the restroom, I think I hear her feet padding in to sit by. (My Lupus/IC causes many night and day trips to rr, she would get up in the night every time to go with me..bless her!).
So, keep the fur baby stories coming!
Signed with a tear or 2 of memories of my Buttons,
Kif