2020: One Day At A Time, We Will Achieve!!
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Sad news! Midnight crossed the Rainbow Bridge at around 6pm yesterday. He was 17 years old but lost the battle with cancer. We had 14 good years together. I'll be going to the city today to make cremation arrangements and to pick out an urn.
The vet practice had a special room set aside for owners to be with their pets a long time before the euthanasia took place. It was complete with comforting posters, comfy sofa, tissues, etc. The staff was fabulous; they also loved Midnight as he boarded with them and interacted with them over the years.0 -
I usually bring a book with me. There are no more magazines in waiting rooms so you definitely have to fend for yourself.
The Hopkins eye clinic I go to always has a packed waiting room and a many, many hour wait. Most of the people waiting are older to elderly. I'm amazed how many of them just sit and stare at nothing for hours (the tv at inauguration time was short-lived there thankfully).0 -
Jean, I’m so sorry to hear that Midnight is gone. I know you will miss him so much.0
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Sad news! Midnight crossed the Rainbow Bridge at around 6pm yesterday. He was 17 years old but lost the battle with cancer. We had 14 good years together. I'll be going to the city today to make cremation arrangements and to pick out an urn.
The vet practice had a special room set aside for owners to be with their pets a long time before the euthanasia took place. It was complete with comforting posters, comfy sofa, tissues, etc. The staff was fabulous; they also loved Midnight as he boarded with them and interacted with them over the years.
Oh, Jean, I am so, so sorry! I know all too well the pain of losing a beloved furbaby. What a terrible thing to have happen during this terrible time! Sending all the comforting thoughts your way I can muster.
I get all my urns here (sort of sad when you order an urn and they welcome you back but that's me). https://www.raysofjoy.biz/pet-urns.html They are wonderful people.0 -
Jean, I’m so sorry to hear that your beloved Midnight has passed. Losing a fur baby leaves a hole in the heart. I’m glad that you had so many years together and special memories of him. Your veterinary practice sounds like it has very caring doctors and staff. Continue to share your memories of Midnight with us. Talking and sharing can be comforting.0
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I’m making more effort to up my steps. I slacked off during the heat wave. I had 4000 yesterday which is about twice what I’d been doing. Today I’m aiming for 5000. I was more conscious of my efforts when I was in FL. I need to get that motivation back.0
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I miss Midnight as he was almost a constant companion for fourteen years. When I went to the kitchen or the bathroom, he would make sure I was escorted. He always met me when I came home, and he slept on my bed. I am doing better than expected. I have some sad moments but I know the decision was the right one for him as well as for me. Caring for him was a challenge when I had the rotator cuff surgery but he made it easier for me through his caring and love.0
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Jean - I can't even imagine how empty your house feels. It's good that you know you did the right thing for him. Sometimes that's all we can do.
I admit our house feels empty to me sometimes and we still have six. But we had many many years where we had 12-15.
Sometimes I remind myself that I really wouldn't want to outlive them.0 -
Midnight was a very handsome fellow. How did you happen to get him? Did you get him as a kitten? We got our first cat, who was also called Midnight from a neighbor who was moving across country. She was about 4 when we adopted her. Cagney and Cheyenne were rescues from a group like Maryanne’s. They were about a year old when we got them. Cagney’s picture is the one I use here as an icon.0
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I adopted Midnight from the Humane Society in the city 14 years ago. He was 3 at the time so with him being 17 years old, we had 14 good years together. All cats have distinctive personalities. Midnight got along fine with me and the vet staff, but he would hide if a stranger came around. He was always an inside cat. His former family moved and couldn't take him with them because of housing regulations--or so they said.0
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Oh, the "we're moving and can't take the cat" frosts me. Plan better!
I also get frosted about kids who dump their parent's pet when the parent dies. I'm sure the parent dies thinking their beloved pet will be well taken care of and then BOOM!
When we moved to Baltimore in 1980 I insisted we rent somewhere that permitted a pet. DH brought home a picture and said "if we have to get a cat, how about one of these?". It was a photo (which I still have) of four white kittens on a chair. We went over to the people's house and they were starting to try to force them outside so they weren't all in the house. I immediately grabbed a kitten and held on. DH said "are you sure that's the one you want?". Yep! That was our Linus. We had her in PA about a week, just long enough to lose our security deposit (nosy landlady lived right across the street). My family never had an indoor pet and never used a vet so I had SO much to learn. I took a laundry basket and "sewed" a piece of cardboard to the top. Cut a flap in the cardboard for a door. That was my carrier.
That was June 1980. By Christmas I was convinced she needed a friend. DH came home from work one day and reported that one of his employees boarded a horse at a barn with a black teenage cat that she was sure the farmer would give up. We went over the day after Christmas "just to look" and of course came home with the little girl whom I named Beethoven. (Not after the composer; what came to my mind was the little kid who plays the piano in the Peanuts comic strip, to go with "Linus". So Beethoven should really have been Schroeder but the wrong name came to mind.). Beethoven and Linus hated each other's guts for 12 years. (So much for Linus needing a friend.) But she was the love of my life. She was also the first cat we ever lost and it devastated me. CROM, which was founded about 4 months after her death, is dedicated to her memory. In a really clear print of our logo (which was designed by CROM artist friend Sherry Shipley (see ebay)) you can see along the rim of the garbage can the words "Dedicated to the memory of my beloved Beethoven".0 -
Here's the logo but you have to imagine the inscription along the edge of the garbage can lid:
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We got Midnight from a single mom of five kids who was driving to Texas. Midnight was not a good traveler so I understood why she couldn’t take her. The kids had a rabbit, bird, fish and a bird in addition to the cat. They paid little attention to Midnight. She started coming over to visit us and she and DH were crazy about each other. They would put her out at night and she would come to us and cry to come in. She’d have dinner and spend the night on our bed. We’d let her out in the morning and she’d go home. MIL lived upstairs in our house (duplex) and she loved Midnight as well. The mom knew Midnight had bonded with us so she knew re-homing her with us was the right thing to do. I don’t know if she ever knew that Midnight spent nights with us.
Midnight didn’t like other cats. A tomcat lived next to us and he bullied her. Because of that, she would chase any cat that had the nerve to come in “her” yard. We couldn’t make her an indoor cat because the first years of her life had been in and out. When she passed away at 16 years old, we waited a year to get Cagney and Cheyenne. It took that time to be emotionally ready for them. Both came from a rescue group called CLAWS (cats living and wanting shelter). The animal control officer ran it from her home. She was a friend so we went to her house when we were ready. They were indoor cats from the start. We had foxes in the neighborhood and I didn’t want them becoming fox food.
Cheyenne had been a pet. The woman was getting a divorce and living in her car. She knew June and was talked into surrendering Cheyenne to CLAWS. She couldn’t care for herself and wasn’t being fair to the cat. Cheyenne’s personality was very people friendly and I attribute that to being raised as a pet her first year. Cagney was a true stray. June captured her hanging around a woman’s bird feeder. She probably wasn’t a true feral cat but that probably would have been her fate if June hadn’t intervened. She was very skittish around people. I picked her because she was a tiger cat. It took her a year to trust us. She would hop up on the couch next to us and tentatively put a paw on our laps. She’d back away like she was afraid to go further than that. After a year, she went all the way to sitting on our laps. It had to be her choice though because she’d panic and struggle if you picked her up. And if anyone came to the house, she’d hide. Cheyenne would come out to meet and greet visitors. Cagney warmed up to Debbie because she cared for them when we were away. The three of us were her people.0 -
I would have guessed Cheyenne and Cagney were siblings. Great background stories!0
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They actually were not. Cagney’s sibling was Lacey but she was adopted before we met Cagney. Cheyenne was a solo cat and liked it that way. We got them to keep each other company but Cheyenne chased and growled at Cagney when they met. Cheyenne was the Alpha cat and called the shots. About 12 years in, something happened between them. My theory is Cagney stood up to Cheyenne and after that Cheyenne was afraid of Cagney. It was like when a kid stands up to a bully. Cagney died a year before Cheyenne so we decided to let her live out her life as a solo cat. She was 18 years old when she died in her sleep. All three cats are buried in our backyard, under the rhododendron bushes.0
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Oh, how I love the cat stories. They are such magical creatures! I copied this from the pet cremation website. It will have Midnight's name and years on it. It is made of brass.
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Jean - that urn is really nice!0
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Beethoven was the first cat we lost. I was devastated but I'd remembered reading that the SPCA (which isn't that far from my vet in the city) did cremations and I assumed it was a source of funding for them. So after Beethoven was gone I took her body there to be cremated. It wasn't a pleasant experience - they made me feel bad for bringing her there and here I thought I was doing a good thing. Anyway I got her back in a plastic box that didn't open and I ended up having a nice wooden box built around it.
We've lost cats at our vet, at two different pet ER's, at home and even once en route to the vet but that first one was both the saddest and the weirdest.
DH can't handle any of it - I do it alone.0 -
Did you know ingurgitate was a word? (spell check doesn't LOL!)
It means exactly what you'd think it means - the opposite of regurgitate.
Guzzle or swallow greedily.
Most of the words on this daily calendar I know but there are a few new ones!0 -
Maryanne--I had a friend who went to the Humane Society to have their dog cremated. They did provide a nice looking box for the remains but I preferred to use the same one I used in 2003. At that time, they operated out of the funeral home, and you selected the urn from a catalog. They have since built a very nice separate facility for pet cremations, complete with a variety of urns already available, or you can order really special ones from a catalog. I would say they are the "go to" for pet cremations since they now have a very nice facility specializing in it.0
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DH took Midnight to the vet when it was her time. She had a number of health conditions for several years. I remember the vet thanking us for continuing to treat her during those years. My first thought was who wouldn’t do all they could could for family member. Later, I realized some families couldn’t afford such a course of vet treatments. We never figured out how much we spent at the vet. We didn’t need to know. We spent whatever she needed as long as she had a quality of life. At the end, she stopped eating and was miserable. The vet said she might have a week left but it would be a rough week for her. DH made the decision to do what was right for her.0
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Yeah, I don't know really want to know what my cat bills have been over the years. Of course Gordy's kidney transplant was the peak. Willie's cyberknife adventure in Yonkers (and all the rest of her cancer treatment) was up there. We've had 28 cats so I've had all kinds of vet adventures.
Now I've got pet insurance on all our guys. It was a huge help when Jessicat had cancer. But it's no help on Jack because everything he has is a pre-existing condition.
I never had any intention of starting on urns. When I brought Beethoven's ashes home I assumed we'd scatter them but DH immediately assumed urn so off I went to accomplish that.
DH would have to use google for directions if he ever needed to go to my vet. LOL!0 -
Let me share some fun Midnight stories with you. She always wanted to be close to DH. When we were building our house, he was working up in the attic. It was an open platform at that stage. He came down, heard crying and saw her up in the attic. He asked me how she got up there and I had no idea. The mystery was solved a day later. He used a ladder to get up there. I’m talking regular ladder, not a step ladder. We saw Midnight jump up and snag a rung with her claws. She brought her rear paws onto the rung below that. She did that process all the way up until she could jump into the attic. She obviously had watched DH climb the ladder and figured out how to do it. She was definitely the smartest of our girls.
She would spend the day, weather permitting, on the back porch. At 3:30, she’d walk down the driveway and wait for MIL to be dropped off from work. She’d walk her back up the driveway and go inside until it was DH’s time to come home. He had an irregular schedule but he had a noisy diesel car. She’d hear him coming down the street, cry to go out and meet him at the end of the driveway. He’d stop the car and she’d hop on the hood and ride up the driveway with her. He’d open the window so she could walk along the window sill and then jump into his lap. She didn’t like riding inside the car though. If he put the car in reverse, she’d cry to get out. If he took a walk down the street, she’d walk along behind him. She had no idea she was a cat. I think she thought she was a person in a fur coat.0 -
There are occasionally deer at all three of the colonies where I feed. I admire them from a distance and try to shoo them away from the cat food until the cats have had their fill. Just recently there have been two adorable babies.
I was feeding today at the "old man's backyard" (as we so eloquently refer to it), turned around and wasn't 10 feet from a deer! I don't know which of us was more startled (but he/she was the only one who ran LOL!)!0 -
I just realized that this October will be the 28th anniversary of Beethoven's death.
I am a numbers person, not a word person. I don't wax poetic. But every time I think about that day, I remember sitting in the back yard crying my eyes out (I didn't want to disturb the other cats). What I remember most about sitting there is the light in early October. I swear I could be in a coma, wake up and I might not be able to tell you where I was or what year it was but I could tell you if it was early October by the quality of the light.
That experience changed the course of the next 30 years of my life.0 -
You may not be a word person, but your words touched my heart. It’s interesting how a single decision can set you on a new path for life. And your decision was a great one.0
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Packet day today. I need to tighten up so I'm determined to start by having a no slip ups packet day today!0
