Farewell Itchy

Last night, my sweet little Itchy went up the the Heavyside Layer to meet Ceiling Cat. I'm sure she's playing with Misty and Buddah who went before her. There's a huge void in our household already.

Itchy was a special little girl. She followed my dad home one fall morning 10 years ago and she never left, because my mom fell in love with this tiny harlequin kitty. She looked like a kitten, but we were sure she wasn't. She was full of love and full of health problems.

Three months after we brought her in she had a bout with an ear infection and we thought she was going to die, which was why we opted not to have her spayed. We feared she wouldn't make it through the surgery. That, of course, was a huge mistake as 2 years ago she had an infected uterus that cost us $700 and almost took her from our home.

Ultimately it was cancer that pulled her away from our happy home, but not without a fight. Itchy was not ready to go and she went with a fight. A 6 month battle that she wanted to win.

I'm happy to say she went in the loving arms of my sister with all of us stroking her fur. She died with a purr, knowing that she was so very loved and that we wanted her go to the Heavyside Layer and be at peace.

Baby Itchy you will be missed terribly. Thank you for the many years of love and sweetness.

Praying For Itchy

I've mentioned before my Itchy has cancer. I was in no financial position to do surgery and anything else needed when we found out. I'm still not, and she's getting worse, and I'm just so sad.

Itchy's a stray that wandered into our lives about 10 years ago or so, I can never remember how many. She's so full of personality too. She earned the nickname "Bitchy Itchy" through my mom, who pets her until she's so annoyed she swats her.

She's a cat that tells you what she wants. In the cold she'd stand by the the register, if we were on it, and beg to be picked up by crawling up our legs and meowing like crazy. She loves kitty back rides too. If I was leaning over the table for something and she was near by, it would only take a minute for me to have a kitty on my back.

Itchy is so full of love. Her eyes are still bright and she's still eating/pooing etc, but I know the tumor is taking its toll. But I know she's not ready to go yet, and I've told her, I can't make that decision for her. I can't put a cat down. I couldn't take a person off life support either.

My cats are my children and you just don't do that to your kids, well at least I don't.

Just A Quiet Day...

I won't be making my usual rounds today. Not because it's election day, but because my Itchy has taken the turn for the worse. I know I've had 3 good months with her that I probably shouldn't have had, but for whatever reason a higher power granted us.

Her time is coming to a close and I want to give her as much love as I can while she's still with us.

I can only leave any cat lovers with this message. If you have a cat, a female cat. Get her fixed! It will be worth the $140. Having a female cat spayed within the first year of her life decreases the risk of several lift threatening diseases of which breast cancer is one.

Had I known that, Itchy would have been fixed when we got her, but she was a sickly kitty then and we didn't want to put her through it, since she's never left the house since she came into our lives.

~ sigh ~

Itchy, I love you little girl. I'm not ready for you to go yet.

Itchy

In January the vet told us that my little Itchy kitty had breast cancer and he wanted to operate. Considering the bad health my darling girl has had over the years, I decided to opt not to do the surgery and let her live out her healthy days without the trauma of a major surgery that could kill her.

Last week, the tumor broke. I was traumatized all Monday, expecting to lose her. I've read about these tumors and I feared that this would happen.

Well it's Saturday and she's still with us, with no change in her sunny playful disposition. The tumor has shrunk and it looks nasty, but she's still alive and well. I'm sure that by all intents and purposes she should be dead.

I can only thank whatever higher power/God that is giving me and the family the extra time with her that we didn't get with Misty.

It's Vet Day Again

I don't want to take her. I feel like I'm throwing away $50 that I don't have! I know she has cancer. I know that surgery is too little too late. I also know that she's going to live out her life with me until I have to take her back to the vet.

I know that death is a part of life, but I also know that I suck at dealing with death.

I'm glad I'm getting more time with her than I had with Misty. I should be happy to have that little bit of time or a lot of time, only god knows but I'm still worrying as its my nature, and though she's a cat, she's my child or as close to one as I can have.

In the last few years I've been doing a lot of fist shaking at the higher power for his callous taking of my kitties.

The lightning rod will be coming after me soon, I'm sure.

Say A Little Prayer

My little girl has breast cancer, or so the vet seems to think. This is a crushing blow.

I lost 2 cats last winter, one to old age and the other to feline leukemia. Some people have no love for animals, but I'm not one of them. I feed my animals off my plate and actually my one cat shares my milk glass on occasion.

I feel like I've been handed a death sentence for one of my children. I had hoped not to have to hear words like this for a good long time. Itchy's not even 10 years old. Right now her health is good, so I hope she has a bit more time with us than Misty did last year.

I'm not ready to lose her, though perhaps knowing now, before it's too late, I can prepare myself better for what's coming.

All this makes me question the concept of the merciful god that I was taught and do believe in. Why does he make creatures like cats and dogs or whatever animal really suffer?

Pray for my kitty please. I love my cats like they were children

My Crazy Cats

It's funny how my cats have paired off. I have 2 females and 2 males, and though they have all been altered, for lack of a better word, they have split up into couples.

Oogie and Bootsie make a cute couple



And then there's Itchy and Mutchka.



What's funny is that when I had Misty and Buddah they never paired up. Maybe it was the age difference. I don't know, but suddenly I have two groups of married couples in the house. What's really precious is when Mutchka starts to clean Itchy.

So far there's been no true love between the two younger kitties even though they hang out together all the time.

Monorail Cat!

Itchy has taken to sitting in the most unusual places in the house. Last night this is where I found her.

In between having fits of worry of her falling off and toppling to her death...Nah...she's jumped from the fridge to the floor, the distance is much shorter from here...I ran for the camera. Yeah, I'm a really good cat mommy. My kitty's in a precarious position and I run for the camera. It's a good thing I knew she wouldn't hurt herself and that she has pretty good balance, considering her shape is so darn round.

She was the perfect monorail cat.

The rest of the pictures that I took are here. Check them out and have a gigglefest, at her expense.

Kittehs Everywhere

I think Muthcka was the only kitteh, that didn't have his picture snapped this weekend, and that's because he's a cranky kitty.

Here are my furry feline friends....


Oogie, aka Kitler looking not so pleased.



This is Bootsie's WTF expression. She uses it a lot.



Itchy is glad I didn't snap another picture of her rolly polly belly.