In Memoriam – Together Yet Separate
After a visit from favourite family members both kitties are fully cuddle satiated and snoozing comfortably. They liked being together… but sharing the sunlamp beam was just right in this photo.
It has been a tumultuous time. My dear soft-hearted Debon (on the left) got very sick and was having problems breathing – I took him to the vet and we discovered he was experiencing a congestive heart failure. He wasn’t responding to the medication and so we sedated him, and he drifted off to sleep laying on my chest his face buried in my neck.
Princess (on the right) has been getting frailer and thinner the last few months, but her iron will has been carrying her into her trotting wheel and keeping her going. She was likely getting tired of how clingy *I* was being with Debon gone but was still purring and enjoying life. Then one morning she stopped eating and drinking and was unable to move with her usual grace. Never the lap cuddler she was happy going into the kennel to fall asleep purring and rubbing against my hand.
Princess had been with me for over 15 years. When I got her, she was a youngster filled with athletic verve and with a diagnosis of a heart murmur. I said that I wouldn’t treat the heart murmur and she was given 5 years as an estimate of her longevity. She scoffed at that and did backflips, races after blue chirpy mice and loved showing off her agility. At 16 she outlived them all: ZhaZee, Rusty, Shadow and Debon.
I had expected Princess’s passing but not Debon’s. Even though he has been ill before (likely exactly the same thing just milder) he’d always rallied with some tummy rubs and some pumpkin and chicken broth. I thought I would get a few more years of his playful frolicking and morning chirping when he knew I was awake.
I will get kitties again, but for a little while this house will feel quite empty.
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