All Nine Went at Once

I had an upbeat fun entry planned for today, I did something upbeat and fun, I’ll get to that but it’s not the most important thing that happened and not what’s on my mind. Lefty the black cat you often see in pictures with me died early this morning. My roommate and I spent all night at the vet ER. Lefty was my roommate’s cat but Lefty, recently adopted me, and we’ve spent a lot of time together. My roommate noticed something was wrong before I did. Lefty was spending most of her time in the windowsill and not moving. It was not as noticeable to me because it’s in the room where I spend most of my time and until the last few days when I came into the room she bound up to the top of my chair and be my headrest or sit on the arms when I wasn’t paying enough attention. She started spending more time on the sill, but I thought it was just her new favorite spot. She’s always changed her favorite spot.

Last night when I came home from my fun day and had finished my dinner she started mewling loudly from the windowsill. She mewls when she wants attention but in the living room she comes to me for it, she doesn’t make me go to her. This was also louder and more urgent, I thought she might be I pain, or perhaps tangled in the curtains and was stuck. I went over to her and picked her up, she doesn’t usually like getting picked up though she’s gotten better about it of late. This time she didn’t struggle at all. I walked her back to my chair and she sat on my lap. She never sits on my lap. I could hear she had difficultly breathing. With me nearby she calmed down and went to sleep. I thought the sounds might be just her snoring. She sat there for two hours without moving, as I comforted her. Then she perked up and lifted her head then stood up and went to her usual spot on top of the back of the chair. I thought whatever it was had passed. She had an appointment to see the Vet on Monday.

It was time for me to go to bed, so I left her on top of the chair. I went to my room and prepared for bed. When she realized I wasn’t coming back she gave the distressed mewling again. My roommate heard it to. At first, we didn’t know where she was, she wasn’t on my chair or the windowsill. We tracked down the sound and found her sprawled on the floor by the windowsill. My roommate took her over to the couch and I looked up all-night Vet ERs. The closest one I found was in Yonkers, which is only 15 minutes away. We called and made arrangements. I didn’t even get dressed, I put on shoes and went in my PJs.

The hospital was having a crazy night, lots of emergencies. Because of COVID-19 we weren’t allowed in the building, so we along with other people with sick animals spent the night in the parking lot. They took blood tests but because they were so backed up it took almost two hours to get the results for the test that only take 30 minutes. The results were bad. They had no idea what was wrong, but she was critically anemic. It was odd as her red blook count was at ⅓ of where it should be, but her other counts were fine. Either her immune system was attacking her red blood cells, or her bone marrow wasn’t producing them. It was difficult but my roommate made the call for euthanasia. I would have done the same thing. We were allowed inside to the Comfort Room to say our goodbyes. As I had her all night, she stayed on my roommate’s lap. They had given her oxygen and IV, so she was a little better than at home. We sat with her for I don’t know how long then my roommate asked me to call in the doctor. She went very peacefully in my roommate’s arms. We took her body home for burial at my roommate’s church. They just opened their old cemetery for pet burials in addition to people.

We got home at 8 AM and went to sleep. This was the least fun night I ever had where I came home after sunrise. I was able to sleep. This was so unexpected. Lefty was only 7 years old, and we’ll never know what caused her death. This has been a rough summer for pets, two of my best friends lost their dogs and now this. I don’t believe in an afterlife and Lefty is beyond pain or sorrow. When we mourn, we mourn for ourselves and the other people that care. Vision, a fictional android, got it right, “What is grief, if not love persevering?”

The fun things I wanted to write about was going to the movies to see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in a movie theater. There were all sorts of discounts, for being 60+, before 4PM, a Tuesday, and for being an AMC rewards member. I’m going to start going to more films on Tuesday afternoons. The film was very good, I wouldn’t say great, but thoroughly enjoyable and gets two thumbs up from me. The theater requires proof of vaccination and masks. Then I walked down to Trader Joe’s for the first time in ages. These everyday things were quite exciting.

Now I have to go for my daily Donut Walk™.