Au Revoir, My Friend ... Until We Meet Again

On Tuesday afternoon, February 15th, Dr. C. came to my house to euthanize Simone.  I sat next to her and stroked her head as she received a sedative, followed by the lethal drug.  In just moments she was gone, as was her suffering and discomfort.

In Simone's last days, her kidneys were failing her.  She was getting weaker and weaker.  But she still had spirit and awareness.  She still managed to climb the stairs from the basement to the first floor.  She even climbed up the ramp to the bed to spend some time sleeping with Pickles as seen in the picture below.

On Monday morning, after settling in on a bathroom mat, she began to wail, an unusual sound for her.  My wife, unsettled by the sound, decided to stay home from work to keep Simone company throughout the day.  When I came home that evening, Simone was again in the bathroom and wailing intermittently.  As soon as I picked her up, she stopped.  We spent the evening together on the couch in the living room; she was quiet, content, and purred lightly.

 

I fixed a bed for Simone on the basement floor and stayed with her that last night.  She barely made a sound and rested comfortably next to me.  The next morning Simone was so weak that she could not stand up.  She remained in the bed until the afternoon.  Waiting for Dr. C. to arrive, I talked to her about her life, our friendship, and the eternal bond that we had.  She was such a brave and spirited cat.  I felt so fortunate to have had Simone with me for twenty years.

Within an hour of her death, Simone was buried in a leaf compost bed near our house.

I'll miss you Queen Siamese.  In memory of Simone's life:

[There will be one last post in a few weeks time.  In that post, I will summarize my thoughts in taking care of companion pet with a fatal illness like chronic renal failure:  the ups, the downs, the costs, the sacrifices.]

Thanks for reading.  Thanks for your thoughts.  Thanks for your words.  Purr on cat lovers!

Everything

the power of the world

does is done in a circle.  The

sky is round,  and . . . the earth is

round like a ball, and so are all the stars.

The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds

make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same

religion as ours.   The sun comes forth and goes

down again in a circle. The moon does the same,

and both are round.   Even the seasons form a

great circle in their changing and always come

back again to where they were. The life of a

cat is a circle from kitten-hood to kitten-

hood, and so it is in everything

where power moves.

— Black Elk

    (revised)