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Today is very hard for me. I had to put my 19.5 year old cat to sleep. I had thought she'd make it to 20, but I couldn't bring myself to make her push it.
She's been eating healthily and moving about great with no pain, just a little arthritis and she was blind. Everyone who saw her never believed she was near 20. She was even still able to jump up to my high bed only a year ago. But last month she started going to the bathroom around the house. I took her to the vet and spent a lot of money on tests. They said she had hyper thyroid and probably a urinary infection. After giving her medicine she seemed to improve in that she was at least going in the laundry room, but not getting in her box. But lately she's been peeing around the house again and I decided the meds weren't working. I spent the afternoon with her and gave her some salmon as her last meal. She loved that. It was then that I saw just how blind she'd become. She could smell the salmon and was all over her food area, even stepping in the bowl. But she just couldn't find the bowl under her nose. That pretty much cemented that it was the right time.
This last picture of her was taken today.
I've never experienced death before of any loved person or pet. All my other pets either disappeared or died when I was out of town and my parents handled it. Plus I had TPaw the longest - basically all the years I've been in Sacramento. I even had her longer than I knew Deon (ex-husband), who I met that same summer.
Her litter had a lot of defects - extra toes, etc. I asked for one of those because it made her special. She had big paws from the toes and so I named her TPaw after the toes and Star Trek. In the classic Trek episode "Amok Time", all the women on the planet Vulcan had TP.... names, like TPring. In fact, the matriarch on the episode was named TPau. And so that's where her name is from.
She was a bitchy cat in her younger days and very independent. Pets really are like their owners - LOL. In our first house our bedroom window was about 5.5 feet off the ground. If we didn't let her in each night, she would jump up outside and pound the window until we let her in. We got another cat because I thought she needed company. But in the end, she was more content as a solo cat and was much happier after the divorce and her own home. As she aged she got much friendlier and lovey. She lived the latter half of her life indoors.
I took her in and held her to the end. I had to go through with it til the end. Of course, I was bawling - and still am. It was pretty simple and fast.
So here is to TPaw. You were a good cat, hardly ever had to go the vet, and a very longtime companion. I love you and will miss you.
Thank you to Wayne Ward for taking our pictures last fall.
