R.I.P. Squeaky Downes

I'm sad to report that our beloved cat, Squeaky (the brown one on top), was put to sleep on Thursday. With the craziness of a new baby and getting used to 3 kids, I neglected to notice the rapid weight loss and change in disposition of the poor thing. I'm pretty sure she lost about 1/3 to 1/2 of her body weight in about 4 weeks from my best calculations. She was morbidly obese weighing in at about 15-16 pounds for the last few years in contrast to her sister who has held steady at about 9 1/2 pounds. She usually sits with us every night watching TV and squeaks and snuggles. I noticed that the food wasn't disappearing and the litter wasn't as full as usual and then the other day I swear you could see her spine and all the bones and she was so lethargic.

I brought her in to the vet and they also spotted her bright yellow ears (jaundice), lesions on her front legs, and the lack of any visible veins. Nice. They suspected liver cancer and basically said she was at the end of her rope. I bawled my eyes out, hugged her and held her while they gave her the shot. They said it could be as fast as 10-15 seconds, but she was so dehydrated that it happened in 2 seconds. Her eyes opened wide like Puss-in-Boots in Shrek 2 and that was that. I had a few minutes alone to apologize for not noticing and hoping she wasn't in much pain. Poor Lickey, her sister, came right up to me when I came home and I swear she knew...she's been all over us ever since.

We told the kids she was old and sick and went up to heaven. Shelagh had the lip quiver and lump in the throat, but held it together. She wasn't so crazy about the cats and avoids them, but still seemed upset about it. Rory was very sad. He plays with them all the time and keeps telling me that Lickey is looking for her best friend who is in Heaven. He would like the vet to go to Heaven and bring her back to Lickey, but seems to be realizing that that isn't going to happen. They are basically okay, thankfully.

Squeaky would have been 12 in May and is shown in the pic above in a typical snuggle with Lickey. R.I.P., dear cat. I'm sorry I wished you ill when I thought you were peeing all over the house and SO glad I didn't do anything about it when I was furiously trying to scrub the carpet (thank you Joe for making me cancel the appointment).