Things get busy around here during the holidays. Our friends know why and I will not go into details here. But on top of our usual hub-bub, we have had an issue with our cats all getting sick at once. Very confusing to us, and life has become miserable for them. Humans understand when they are sick with a cold to ride it out; animals just want to hide from it.
Checkers
About 12 years ago we have a nasty storm around Christmas time (sound familiar?), with winds and blowing snow. More wind that snow, and bitter cold. We had decorated our house for Christmas with a large plastic light-up Santa that I had purchased with one of my first paychecks as a teenager (that is another story). We tied it up on top of our porch roof, but it could not stand up to the winds that day and blew off the roof with a tremendous crashing noise - at 5 am, of course. My husband ran outside as the sound was so loud, we thought a car had crashed into the house. The news of the 'death' of my Santa did not go well, but even worse was our front door did not shut all the way against the horrible wind when he came back in. When the door blew open, one of our cats, Scottie, ran out. We spent two weeks searching for Scottie, going door-to-door, posting fliers - the usual. We purchased a humane trap, set it in our back yard and put in his favorite food to temp him. That is how we got Checkers. (We caught Scottie the day after.)
We could have let Checkers go, since she was feral, but she seemed so calm in the trap that we brought her in and confined her to a bathroom until she could acclimate to her surroundings, and until we could get her to a vet to be sure that she did not have anything that would hurt our other cats. I would go in to visit her, and she would come up to me very shyly, full of trepidation, but willing to be pet and held. These little visits were very precious to me.
We took her to our vet and Checkers was in perfect health, about 6 months old, and, of course, ready to be spayed. She came home and took up residence in the bathroom until she was healed. Having sniffed each other through the bathroom door, there was very little excitement when she joined the rest of the group. Then she met Ike, our pure white deaf cat. It was love at first sight on her part and our little cuddle sessions were now over. She bonded to Ike and I guess she figured she only needed him and the female human was now unnecessary. I was disappointed, but she became Ike's hearing buddy, so I did not push the issue. The only times I got to hold her again were when I was able to trim her claws, or when we moved. These escapades consisted of corralling the poor cat into a small space, donning oven mitts, and wrapping her in a towel or shoving her in a carrier.
The minute she arrived here in the Poconos house, she laid down her boundaries: feed her, let her buddy up to Ike, and let her hide when we come near. We tolerated all this because she was the world's best mouser. No fooling around with the prey, like the rest of the cats; she would just whack it! We started calling her Ms. Soprano.
I believe, and our new veterinarian agrees, that one of those mice that dared come into our house brought this bug that they are all suffering from now. Checkers, being the real assassin, got it the worst. We were able to catch her to take her to the vet only because she had grown so weak. She had pneumonia.
The vet told us we would have to medicate her everyday and really subject her to some intensive care. We knew that once she got her strength back, if she did, she would fight us. It would all be torture to her. She was so sick and she had no fight left in her. I know she told me it was time to go. I know, silly, talking to a cat, but I swear when I told her what we thought about doing and that Ike would be joining her soon (he is 18), she relaxed and gave me a final gift. She let me hold, cuddle and caress her beautiful fur one last time. No more fight.
We buried her under the magnolia tree where we have the others who have passed since we moved here. We have a spot next to her for Ike when he chooses to go. I think he misses her, I know I do.
I know this is a self-indulgent posting. Thank you for reading.
