Sad Rad

[Badcat]

God Bless you Rad for being a great human to a great feline. I'm sorry for your loss. Please let time pass and then look for the opportunity to know a new friend.

Burk

 

[FredandJeannesRacer]

Just got the same news this week. Our cat of 13+years has bone cancer. Jeanne and I are sure gonna miss her, when she's gone.

 

[beerme]

I can't add much to what's already been said, but I know the pain. Here's wishing you a speedy "recovery" & many happy memories.

 

[radman]

I thank you all for the kind words, the sympathy, the empathy. Save your real sorrow for those that will never know the unconditional love of a companion animal, for the critters that suffer at the hands of people who cannot be adequately described with the words available to me, and know that Lia had as good a life, I believe, as an animal can possibly have, which was what she truly deserved. We were lucky to have known her and to have been a part of her life, she was truly one of a kind. We have another cat, Rumble, who will have to hold the place down until a companion,or three, finds us.

Rumble,left, Lia right, in happier times

 

[Checkswrecks]

Sorry for your loss. The really important stuff in life...

Bob

 

[Bearly Flying]

Sorry to hear of your loss Radman.

Sounds like Lia picked a good Family.

 

[Silver Penguin]

So sorry to hear of your loss. The tribute to Lia got me all choked up. We planned on getting a cat, for our daughter and somehow ended up with five of them.

Here's Louise, with four of them. Trying to get all five into a photo at the same time is like, well....... herding cats!

Jill

 

[khrome]

There are no words that describe that pain you feel. I know that pain and dread the day I have to feel it again, it's a double edged sword of the lover of animals.

khrome

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

Dave,

It's easy to see there is something softer under your crusty exterior, but I never would have guessed you were a cat person.

Lia must have seen what a lover you were and rewarded you for it.

Sorry for your loss. It sucks.

 

[Rogue]

Sorry to hear, critters become a part of our familys and it always hard to lose one.

 

[juniorfjr]

Dave,

As I am writing this my lap warmer, Coco, is giving himself a bath. When we had to put our dog of 15 years down a few years back, swore I would never have another pet. But as someone else said here they bring more joy than misery.

So sorry for your loss. Fred Jr.

 

[Badcat]

Hey Rad, I love the name of your yellow cat "Rumble." How did the name come about? Lia sure was a pretty calico.

Take good care of Rumble.

 

[painman]

Rad, sorry about your lose of your special family member. Loosing our pets are almost like loosing one of our kids. We just lost our female beagle Dee that we've had here as long as my wife and I have been married along with my step kids, 13 years. As I still struggle that she's gone I just try and remember all the good times we had together and no one can take that away. Our hearts go out to you and your family at this sad time and you are in our prayers. Take care my friend. Del. <><

 

[Toecutter]

But this morning, as she lay in my lap, so thin and frail, once a robust 13 pounds, now barely 7, Lia stretched out a paw, and placed it on my wife’s arm, as if to comfort, and my wife and I just bawled.

Sounds just like when Sasha left, just over four years ago now. I trapped her as a feral Himalayan mix kitten out at the Kerman fire station in 1989 and brought her home. She hid under the buffet in our front room for two weeks, then crawled out and took a firm grasp on our hearts for the next 14 years, before I ended her battle with cancer on the stainless steel table of a vet's office. She did that little paw thing on the way there, and didn't open her eyes again. Had her cremated, then, after a couple more years, cast her to the winds at a nice point on the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks for sharing the writing and for bringing back fond memories of my own. Sorry for your loss, but glad for the joy you and Lia shared along the way.

Where's that confounded Kleenex?

 

[BobbyBlue]

Radman, please accept my humble condolences and thank you for sharing your tribute...I lost my only brother last week and the tears are streaming...what great words for man and beast, my love to you and yours.

Blessings,

Bobby

 

[kaitsdad]

Dave,

I'm sorry.

God Bless.

 

[wfooshee]

World's coolest cat used to live in my house. He was named Budweiser, after the box his mother had the litter in. He was the runt of the litter, the kitten that got shoved aside most of the time. Survived, and we took him.

At about 5 or 6 years old, found him looking sickly, not eating. Took him to the vet, they said he should be OK with fluids and maybe force feeding, but it turned out he had stomach cancer, and no chance.

He was the smartest cat I ever saw. We also have a dog, and when the dog would bark or scratch to be let in or out, the cat would come find me to tell me about it. When I got to the door, the cat would be there, stretched up and reaching for the knob. He couldn't turn it, but he knew it was part of the process. He was also the only cat I ever had (out of 20 or 30 since childhood) that would greet me, almost like a dog does, enthusiastically and vocally. At night he would sleep on me. Not just on the bed, but on me; back, stomach, hip, whatever part of me was up top, he was there trying to curl up. Coolest thing, though, was I'd find him playing with his toys, sitting up like a squirrel and holding whatever catnip-filled thing he had at the time in his hands, trying to pry it open.

I miss my Bud!

 

[radman]

Hey Rad, I love the name of your yellow cat "Rumble." How did the name come about? Lia sure was a pretty calico. Take good care of Rumble.

You can hear him purring from 2 rooms away.

Thank you again all, your words are,indeed, helping. To those with critters, some thoughts.

One of my big regrets is that, in the final couple days of her life, Lia was amidst strangers, mostly. You see, I wrote the piece I started this with on Tuesday. Lia was scheduled to be euthanized Wed am, but the wife and I decided we weren't yet ready to quit. Lia went to the University of Minnesota Small Animal Hospital, admittedly one of the, if not the, best in the world. Surgery followed the discovery of a mass in her gut, which proved to be a solid hair mass in her small intestine. In a younger animal, recovery would be swift and complete, but Lia was no longer young, and her deteriorating condition had left her in such a weakened state, that recovery was proving difficult. At 2 am Saturday morning, we got the call from the ICU that Lia had gone into respiratory arrest, that she had been resuscitated, but that it was likely brain damage had occurred. Her heart rate was low, they had her on multiple drugs to bring her blood pressure up, and they were not working. We got there at 2:30 am, and for a while, it seemed a miracle might occur-we held her head, stroked her body best as we could as she had multiple IV's running into her, a feeding tube exiting her abdomen, 2 monitors and 4 IV machines surrounding her, it looked like a scene from ER. As we talked and fondled, her heart rate came up, blood pressure finally moved into the normal range, temperature (she was being heated by a machine too,as well as on oxygen) started climbing into a normal range, but her unblinking stare, her absolute stillness, spoke volumes. A blood transfusion had not helped much, her red cells were dissolving into nothingness. At 12 am Sat morning, the ultimate decision made, we held her for the last time as the pentathol ended her battle.

On the way home, my wife asked "would you do it again?", and I quickly answered "of course-hope is worth the fight". But on reflection, I'm not so sure. Lias last hours cost a fortune, but money is not so much the issue, starting Monday I'll just make some more, but how the money was spent is what's important. Several thousand dollars could have helped a lot of shelter kitties, rather than being spent in a futile, selfish attempt at preserving something that was already gone. Her last memories were likely not of us, but of strangers sticking her, shaving her, putting her to sleep, waking her up. Had we just gone ahead and said goodbye Wednesday, she would have seen us last, and we would have seen her whole and comfortable as she left. I can't even think of the horrors a family faces as they are forced to watch a loved one melt away into nothingness, human euthanasia is a subject for another time, likely another place. It just all sucks so fucking deep.

 

[TheAxeman]

Rad,

I just came across this thread. I can't add any more than everyone else did here but I feel terrible for your loss....

Rumble looks an awful lot like a friend I know.

 

[RonBB]

Rad sorry for your loss. Our pets are people too! Many times better than people.