RIP Prissy

I found this on a friend's blog. She lost her cat on Sept. 27.

Can one ever be truly prepared for the death of a treasured family pet?
Every pagan family needs the obligatory black cat.

Our family LOVES black cats. Astro was all black, but with a white undercoat, then we had 4 "black & whites". Prissy had a tuxedo & little white mittens.We lost our Prissy today. We had her put to sleep. She died about 2:30 this afternoon. I prayed last night that if Prissy died, the ground would be soft enough to bury her. I woke up to rain this morning, but it soon stopped & the sun came out. Don had no trouble burying her. He did it by himself. He didn't ask for help because he didn't think Nick or Eddie would help him. Don-Mike was at work. And I'm such a chicken, I took off for work as soon as we got home from the vet, about 3.

I posted the following on Facebook this morning:

Prissy is still with us, but I don't know if she'll make it to her vet appt. I told Mother that Prissy was very ill & she said she wants to say good-bye. At least I told her while she was at the beauty parlor. Marcella was talking with her when I left.

Mother has her hair done every Saturday morning. Arlene Wanner used to take her, but Arlene has been very ill & is still very weak. I take Mother to her hair appt., Marcella, her beautician, calls me when she is done & then Mother & I go to Subway for lunch.

After Mother's hair appt., I brought her home so that she could say good-bye to Prissy. Prissy was very still & very cold. Mother sat & held her for about 20 minutes. She kept asking if Prissy was alive. She was so cold & still. I felt for Prissy's heart & she was purring.

Last night I had tried giving Prissy some more water in the syringe, but she choked & then she tried getting out of the chair & fell. So, I decided the bathroom heat vent would be the best place to put her. She couldn't fall out of that & break her neck. Several months ago I had bought a cute little fleece blanket at Dollar Tree. I found it again a day or 2 ago & was thinking I would put it in Jae's bed, but didn't. I dug the blanket out last night & put it & an old tattered t-shirt of Nick's on the heat vent in the bathroom & closed the door, not that I was afraid Prissy would go anywhere, but that Marsha might bother her.

Prissy barely made it to the vet appt. When I got home from taking Mother home, Don said that if I would drive, he would hold Prissy. I said no, he could drive & I'd hold Prissy. I had already made the decision we would have her put to sleep. And I didn't want to have to drive on the way home. I did that when I had Boots put to sleep & it's too hard to drive when you're crying. She seized several times on the way down. The first time I thought she was trying to throw up. She had such bad breath. I had Don stop a couple of times.

She was SOOOO cold that when they tried to take her temperature it didn't register. The vet gave us several options, but his first comment when he came in the examining room was that she was trying to check out on us.

One option was to do bloodwork & see what was going on. Another was to let her die naturally or the third was to help her along. She started seizing again as he walked out the door to get something. I asked him what she was doing. He stopped, looked & said, "She's made her decision for you." 

Even though I had made the decision to put her down & not put her through what I put Boots & Astro through, I still cried buckets & have a head ache & burning eyes.

I had a busy day. I took Mother to her hair appt. & lunch; Prissy to the vet & worked for 4 hours. After work, I went to tell Mother we had Prissy put to sleep. I fixed her supper, nuked a frozen dinner. On the way home I stopped at the grocery store for groceries. I fixed supper & am now on my way to bed.

Prissy very ill

My heart is heavy tonight. Our little cat Priscilla Anne (with an e), is very ill. I'm afraid she has FIP. I'm sure that's what Boots had & Astro had it too. Prissy has a vet appt. at 2 tomorrow. Depending on what I find, I'll probably have her put to sleep.

She may also have got in some antifreeze. She's been having trouble drinking. Yesterday she was having trouble walking. Today, she can barely move. She made it to the front room from the laundry room. I picked her up & put her in her favorite chair & that's where she has stayed all day. This afternoon when I got home from work, I gave her 1 CC of water from a syringe, she sputtered & had trouble swallowing, but afterwards she tried getting out of the chair & fell out of it. Don picked her up & put her back in the chair.

Nick's been worried about her since Tuesday. It's too bad when a person is too busy, or thinks they're too busy, to stop & take a sick animal to the vet. But, this is also sad, I had to check the vet credit card to see if I had enough available credit to take her. We don't even have enough money to buy groceries. We are in pay check limbo, the period between pay checks - grrrr.

Trip to Logan

I did remember to dry my clothes & hang them up. This time I hung them up in the closet instead of in the hallway for the cats to lay on. I think the cat poop was from Astro. But he's been dead over a year now. Can you tell when the last time I wore that outfit was??

I also took the towels out of the bath tub & washed them. They were stinky. I was going to put vinegar in the wash, but didn't. They were still sitting in the washer when Don got home. He asked if it was ok to start the washer. I said yes, totally forgetting why I had not washed them earlier.

I had to take Mother to Logan to get her pro-time checked. It was 2.7. We bummed a ride down with Don-Mike & Nick.

Moving in May, 5/15

Today I drove across the street to Subway instead of walking. What was I thinking? I thought of it as I pulled out of the alley, but didn't turn around & park. It took me longer to drive than it would have to walk it. I did park in the pink Victorian house lot today & walked to Lewiston State Bank & back. Then I realized I'd left my drink at work, drove back & parked on the far side of the Opera House parking lot & walked across the parking lot, the alley & into the Citizen.

So, now I'm up to 3 hours and 15 minutes, with 3 hours & 75 minutes left to walk this month.

Don & I traded nights to cook tonight. I fixed supper so Don can fix grilled burgers tomorrow night. We left the food sitting on the stove so Don-Mike could have some when he got home he could have some. Luckily he brought some food with him because Nick saw a mouse eating out of the pan. Don-Mike mentioned how he missed Astro. We all miss our little Astro-Bear. He was a good mouser.