She's gone!

She came into our lives one April evening in 1995. She disappeared one night about two weeks ago. I'm talking about "Momma Cat". She hadn't looked well for a couple of weeks. She was slowing down. She wasn't as spry. We figured it was old age. Then on a Saturday, she looked so bad we took her to the vet. She was dehydrated and you could feel her ribs. They drew blood and sent us home with our own container of Ringers lactated IV solution and sufficient needles to give her an IV twice a day until she began to eat and drink again. We did this for a couple of days and she began to look better. (Did you know that animal skin will pull away from the muscle when they're dehydrated. You can give an IV subcutaneously and the bubble of fluid will absorb into the muscle.) For about a week everything was normal and then she began to fade. We had a couple of days where she didn't move from her spot in the ivy, even to eat. When we checked on her one evening she was gone. We looked all over the yard, the neighbors yard, across the street. No cat. She never came back. So she's gone, after 13 years, 3 kittens and countless doves and lizards.

I'm glad to finally have NO ANIMALS to care for for the first time in what seems like forever. Dana's glad she didn't have to watch the cat die. Dad's a little disappointed we didn't get to add her remains to the collection under the apricot tree.