Tribute to Mama the Cat

I promsie to write something happier next time. I've been too depressing and deep lately. LOL

We put our little Mama cat to sleep on Thursday the 18th of June 2009. It was a really sad day, and I always worry that I did the right thing or not. She got to where she couldn't walk very well, or jump up on things very well. I just didn't want to let her get as bad as Ali. We tried too hard with Ali, and probably for our own benefit. When she tried to jump up on something fairly low and fell on her side, I decided it was time. It's got to be so hard for them to try and do the things they have done their whole life and fall down. I just couldn't let her go through it any more. The shots of fluids under the skin, days without eating well. I think I did the right thing, but I always question how long I should let it go. So enough of that.. Now to mama's story.

I believe Mama was over 15 years old. I'm not sure exactly how old she was when I got her. She was living outside at my apartment in Florida. She had been with me since 1995. I started feeding her and then I noticed her stomach was getting bigger. She was a very skitty kitty and wouldn't let anyone get too close. I was trying to work up to her letting me pet her. I called several rescue agencies, but none of them got there before she had the kittens. In truth, there are so many unwanted cats in Florida I'm sure they didn't even want to come out. So I came home from work one day, and she came our from under some bushes to greet me. She was proud and talking to me, and her stomach was much smaller. So, I went to peek at the kittens. There were 5 very cute kittens under some really un-protected bushes. She had them there to be close to the food I was feeding her. So then came the dilemma, leave them there and count on all of them being eaten by something, or bring them in the house. Remember that I had not even been able to get this cat to let me pet her yet. But the option was clear. Bring them in... She was mortified when I put her new babies in a box and tried to coax her up the stairs with them. She was not going, even with me holding her babies hostage. So we had to grab her in a towel. The first attempt didn't go so well and she jumped out of the towel and landed on her side. Remember she had just had kittens so she was probably a little shaky. I felt SO SO bad, I was nearly in tears. I almost regretted my decision. But, I knew the consequences of leaving them out there for even one night. There are a lot of predators in Florida. So, we finally got her in the towel and all of them upstairs. We blocked off a bedroom and put her and the kittens in there under an open front dresser. It was our junk room so there were a lot of places to hide baby kitties. She moved them somewhere else and then I would move them back. She wouldn't come out to eat much, but I got her to eat a full can of tuna every day and dry food. She needed that for nursing all those cute little babies. She finally warmed up to me and even started to let me pet her. I discovered that she had a broken rib at some point in her life. Probably why she was scared of people. I assume someone kicked her. She was always more scared of men. About this time the kitties were starting to walk around. Funnest little things ever. Five little bouncy crazy kitties. I'll try to find some old pictures of them. We were still on film then, so I'll have to scan them. My goal was never to keep Mama, but to give her away to another family. This is how she got stuck with the name Mama (little mama cat). I already had a cat and really didn't want two. I got Mama fixed and all her shots. I got the kittens shots and paid for their spay/neuter charges. I believe all pets should be spayed/neutered so I really wanted to be proactive on that front. They were too young to go through the procedure when we gave them away, but it was taken care of for the new owner. No excuses either... :-) We raised the kittens and gave them all away to good homes. People I knew that would (hopefully) be very responsible pet owners. We kept the runt the longest and she looked just like mama.

I found a man at my work that was willing to take Mama. Believe me this is not an easy give away because she was grown, had not lived in a house before mine, didn't know how to play with humans, and was VERY skitty. He knew all the negatives and wanted her anyway. I was so thankful she was going to a good home because I was getting attached to her. I'm just that way about animals. She had also become very attached to me over the time she had been in the house. She had let me hold her, pet her and become very comfortable with me. Holding a cat that has never been held before is quite a feat. So he takes her home, but I get a call after about 5 days. He says they have tried everything to get her to eat and she refuses. She hides all the time and won't come out. They even tried to force feed her because they were worried about her starving. So, I told him to bring her back and not feel bad. She had picked me as her person and that was that. He brought her back to me that night. I had set out food and water in the living room in hopes that she would eat when she got back. He brought in the carrier and opened the door. As soon as she realized where she was, she ran out and ran to the food. She only stopped gulping down food long enough to yell back at me over her shoulder. He felt so bad. I told him it's just how things work out some time. Obviously she was supposed to stay with me. He should get another cat because it normally was not like this at all. So, he did and all was well. :-)

Mama moved with me from Florida to Maryland, Maryland to Texas, Texas to Denver, and temporary housing a couple of times (moving around for my crazy jobs). Nine home moves in all. She hated to move too. She would hide for a couple of days. She got better at it as the years went by. This last move she loved this new house, so she did great. She has been my only companion for times in my life. She has made my life richer and more full. She was so loving and needed to be near me. She had to put up with my little Ali cat that I got just to keep her company. Ali was the most bossy kitty ever and loved to torment mama. When Ali left us about 3 years ago, I told George that she was entitled to have us all to herself for the rest of her life. We had a stack of pillows between us on the couch and she would come and lay on them while we watched TV. She had a chair in the computer room, right by the window, where she would also hang out while I worked. She would come and lay on top of my laptop when she really wanted to be close. She loved the back yard in our house and would go out to stalk the baby bunnies, squirrels, and birds. She loved to just lay under one of our pine trees and watch the yard. She was so skitty that she could not stand to have the door closed and be outside. We would leave it cracked and she would go in and out. We could see a good bit of the yard from our office window and got to watch her play. When the weather was nice she would get very mad if you didn't leave her door open. When the weather was bad she would beg you to open the door and then get aggravated with you because she couldn't go out. I think she thought I made the weather... She never would stray from inside our fence because the outside world was just to scary for a kitty that had grown up outside. She had a meow that sounded like a quack and I often called her my little duck. She never did take to strangers very well but she got better as the years went by. The last trip Kyle and Serene made over she let them pet her, but she was totally baffled by Bridger. Didn't even want to be close to him, even though he wanted to be close to her. She loved George too, but was always more loving with me. She had a round kitty bed that we put on our spare bed and we called that her room. She would run if you walked behind her like you were chasing her. When she was really acting skitty for no reason I would call her a "silly silly kitty" and that would calm her down.

When she got to where she wasn't eating very well, I took her to the vet. She hated the vet so much you can't even believe it. She was so dehydrated at that point that the vet didn't think she would live out the week. So we started the sub-q fluids. I hate needles but did it at home so she wouldn't have to go to the vet. I started feeding her as often as she would eat, and monitoring how much water she drank every day. I put glasses around the house and filled them to the same point every day so I could track it. She had been eating raw and cooked meat, baby food, tuna... anything I could get her to take. She actually put on a pound between the first time I took her in and the last. It's a good thing I work at home so I could do that for her. It prolonged her life for a few months. When the tests failed to produce a diagnosis the vet thought it was probably cancer. We stopped testing and just did the best we could. She would go through periods where she wouldn't eat well and we would just start the fluids again. I would just try to tempt her several times a day with whatever she would eat. It let us have a final few months with her, knowing it would not last too long. I pampered her even more and loved her as much as I could.

Here are the last pictures I took of mama. It was about a month ago and she was having really good day. She loved to roll in the grass and stretch out and pull herself along with her claws. It made her really happy.