Cat farewell

[resonant]

I had to say goodbye to Nibby cat yesterday. She was 14 years old and had spent 12 of those years with me. She was smart and affectionate and bossy and vocal, and had the silkiest fur I've ever touched.

It is indescribably weird to be in this apartment alone. I'm the only moving creature here! The only other times I've experienced that have been the few times when she had to have a stay at the vet. Multiple times every hour I have some thought that assumes she's still here, and have to remind myself again.

If you want to show me pictures of your pets, or tell me stories, I would enjoy that.

Comments

[sixbeforelunch]

I had that same experience of "where's the cat?" ... "oh, right" after Phoebe died. It's gone away now, but it took a while for me to stop looking for her at odd moments. It's amazing how the loss of such a small creature can make a space feel so empty.

I don't have any pictures or stories handy, I'm afraid, but I'm sending you my sympathy. I'm so sorry for your loss. hugs

[resonant]

It's really true that spaces feel different when the little creature isn't in them.

I took all the unused food to my downstairs neighbor, who has 3 cats (and 2 dogs and 2 kids and a fiancee), and he gave me one hug, and then decided it wasn't enough and gave me another one.

[pauraque]

I'm sorry for your loss. I do not currently have any pets, but at this moment I am petsitting, and this is my client's cat. She seems to rotate through sitting in each window throughout the day.

[resonant]

She looks a lot like Nibs! I hope she loves her windows.

Sincere condolences

[jesse_the_k]

...on the loss of your long-time friend.

We were still checking over our shoulders for Bella until last Monday, when we brought home Shadow from a local rescue. He's had a hard life, and we're looking forward to buoying him up with love.

Re: Sincere condolences

[resonant]

He's beautiful! Such a soulful face.

[china_shop]

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's really hard.

This is the most recent photo of our cat, Halloween Twinkletoes AKA Halle, taken by my partner while Halle was checking whether maybe it was dinner time yet.



I've pretty much taught her to expose her belly in exchange for treats, and also to jump up onto the top of the scratching post. I occasionally think about getting her speaking buttons, but I don't know that I have the necessarily stickability/consistency to really train an animal, and anyway, I may be too introverted to live with another creature who can speak.

[resonant]

Aw, so cute! I never taught Nibby much of anything, but sometimes she taught me. She had two brushes (one grooming glove and one of those undercoat-removal brushes) and if I held them both, she would nudge the one she wanted.

I'm not sure how well a cat would use speaking buttons, because I'm not sure they believe we're intelligent enough to communicate with.

[celli]

I am so sorry about Nibby cat. *hugs* It's so hard to be alone after sharing space for so long, and with cats it's a very specific kind of space-sharing too.

C8T0 is in my lap, much like the below. I'll lure her up to take a nap with me and then long after I've woken up, she's still there, so hopefully everything I want to do is within reach!

[resonant]

C8TO looks like a cat who knows secrets she will never tell!

[barbaratp]

Eu tive um cãozinho, na verdade ele era gigantesco, mas manso igual um filhotinho. Seu nome era Hans e tivemos que sacrificar ele aos 14 devido um câncer progressivamente agressivo que o deixou muito debilitado. Eu me despedia dele todos os dias sem saber quando a Zoonoses o levaria embora. Quando aconteceu eu chorei tanto. Fiquei muito tempo triste, porque ele vivia comigo desde filhotinho, tinha sido meu presente de aniversário, eu tinha uns 3 anos quando ganhei ele. Era cinza escuro todo rajado, ele me fez tão feliz que até hoje me recordo com alegria de como brincávamos de cavalinho ou eu usava ele como travesseiro, como mesmo bravíssimo ele era comigo um doce de animal. Todos tinham medo dele, mas sua obediência a nós era tamanha, que se eu colocasse a mão nele e alguém chegasse ele só avançaria sobre meu comando.

Fiquei escutando o som e sentindo o cheiro dele por meses a fio depois que ele se foi. Nunca havia vivido sem um animal de estimação até aquele dia. Levou vários anos antes de me darem outro cão. Pipoca, uma dauschner/pinscher muito fofa.

Essa infelizmente passou pouquíssimo tempo comigo pois tive que doar ela. Fiquei triste mas me resignei pois o novo lar dela era incrivelmente acolhedor. Igual a minha casa.

Anos se passaram e agora tenho um gato. Um exemplar puramente brasileiro de nome Aldebaran (a estrela, não o personagem de anime). Ele tem atualmente 7 anos, estou com ele desde quando tinha 5 meses. É meu melhor companheiro, dorme comigo todos os dias. Faz com que eu me sinto viva, mesmo quando ele mija em tudo (inclusive em mim), ou quando faz alguma arte (como soltar aquele líquido fétido pelas glândulas anais). Não sei se conseguiria viver sem ele. Já falei com mãe que se um dia ele faltar eu vou imediatamente conseguir outro amigo peludo para mim, pois não sei mais como conciliar uma vivência nessa terra sem um bichinho comigo.

Então entendo um pouco a dor que podes estar passando. Nossos amigos peludos são uma das melhores partes da nossa vida. E passamos tantos anos com eles que é dificílimo dizer adeus.

[resonant]

Google Translate gives me "a purely Brazilian specimen" for Aldebaran, which is so vivid I feel like he and I already know each other!

Your stories have so much loss in them - that's what we sign up for, isn't it, when we love animals knowing how short their lives are. It's worth it.

[starwatcher]

So sorry for your loss; losing a pet is very hard. No matter how good a life we gave them, their death feels like kind of a failure of care. (At least, it feels like that to me.)

Here's my first dog, the most unpoodle-like poodle ever -- calm, quiet, not jumpy. I sometimes wondered if he was somewhat mentally retarded -- literally -- but he was so sweet and absolutely loyal. He was supposedly a family dog, but chose me over all my sibs.

When I was a member of our local Community theater, he appeared on stage before I did, as the "old dog" that one of the characters had. He drank milk (in the script) on stage, and was calm enough for the actor to "lead him around on a string." (In the script.) The director had planned on finding a "shepherd kind of dog," but wasn't having any success. I felt bad about leaving Pepper alone every evening during rehearsals, so I offered him as a "stand-in" until Bill found the dog he wanted. I suspected he wouldn't be successful, so I quit cutting Pepper's hair and let him get very shaggy. Sure enough, Bill decided to use Pepper, so I sprinkled his hair with straw each night, and he went on stage. (Sneaky StarWatcher was sneaky even before she was "StarWatcher".) Pepper was a big hit.

The picture won't post -- I've checked it 3 times! -- so here's Pepper on Flickr.

[resonant]

What a great story! I can't tell scale from the photo - was he a toy or a standard? He looks like a toy poodle owned by my mom's best friend when I was a kid, who was named Yosserian (from Catch-22) but mostly called Yoyo.

[adafrog]

{{{hugs}}}

[resonant]

Thanks.

[trobadora]

I'm so sorry!

[resonant]

Thank you. That was a pretty long life for a cat, and it's a relief not to be WORRYING about her, but I miss her hourly.

[watersword]

I'm so sorry. She was a perfect cat and was so lucky to have you as her human.

The gherkin deigned to sniff a visiting four-year-old today! For someone who historically dislikes strangers generally and small humans specifically, this is a big deal.

[resonant]

Ooh, a four-year-old is a risky and unpredictable sort of human. That was very brave.

[laurenthemself]

May her memory be a blessing.

Here's Pippin and Toby trying to pretend that they weren't being cuddly.

[resonant]

Aww. "Who, us? No, we hate each other."

[minnaway]

I'm so sorry.

[resonant]

Thanks! I miss her. She was a sweetheart.

[lunabee34]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

*hugs*

[resonant]

Thank you. We know it's going to happen but we fall in love with them anyway.

[dine]

I'm sorry Nibby's gone - it's amazing how large a hole is created by such a small body leaving. this is Olivier, who died of kidney failure a couple years ago at age 12; I wanted many many more years with him, and I still sometimes think he's got to come around the corner or wake me because there's a small clear spot in his bowl.

[resonant]

Oh, he was a handsome beast! When I was in high school we had a cat named Oliver. It's a good name for a cat.

[ride_4ever]

My sympathy AND my empathy. When my cat departed this life it was one of the worst things I ever experienced.

Nibby was fortunate to have YOU for her person.

*hugs*

[resonant]

We bonded in a big way, which was lucky for both of us.

Nibby

[elderwitty]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

My Icon is Hetty (aka Hettybetty), who died in 2009 at 16.
We never know them for long enough, do we?

hugs

Re: Nibby

[resonant]

Couldn't be long enough!

But then I sometimes think about those long-lived pets like if you were an adult and you adopted a parrot, you'd have to make life plans on the theory that it might outlive you!

[fox]

[hugs]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aeoX2G5GE8ITTBHpEAubySo0Qs9T8qgb/view?usp=drivesdk

That should be a video of me skritching the gerbils while we waited for an appointment at the vet a few weeks ago.

[resonant]

Gerbils! I guess I've only known gerbils that belonged to kids, so in reality I've never seen a gerbil relaxed.

[runpunkrun]

I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. <3

My Gus cat is currently in the laundry room tossing around his favorite toy, a stuffed shrimp. I keep hearing it clanging against his water bowl; soon it may be floating in there. I'm still not sure if it flies in on accident or if he drops it in there on purpose.

[resonant]

I wonder why they do that? Our minds are so alien to each other, in some ways, and yet we love each other right across that gap.

[drklock]

This is Carl and Charlie. They are my daughters babies. Carl is the gray tabby. He's almost 15. She adopted him when she was stationed in Japan. He saved her life, as she was doing the job of 2.18 people, and he helped bring her back to good after a days work. He's still very active but he finds Illinois winters very trying. A couple years ago, Charlie showed up at my sisters home in Kentucky. She couldn't keep him, and Jordan and I had discussed finding Carl a companion. We drove 4 hours halfway to meet my sister and bring him home. He was a tiny kitten at the time and now he's twice the size of Carl. Carl loves using him as a bed. They own the house and the girl.

I'm sorry for your loss. It takes a while to stop 'looking over your shoulder' for that someone who should be there.

[resonant]

Aww, so cute. I love it when cats love each other because the cuddliness goes up geometrically.

[petra]

I'm so sorry. I know you know this from lived experience right now, but if you ever find yourself thinking "But she was just a cat," I'm here to remind you: psychological research shows that the death of a pet can hit as hard as the death of a human family member. Please give yourself grace.

My little black kitty has spent as much time as physically possible on top of me since we brought her home nigh on 14 years ago. She is a joy, a comfort, and a pain in the neck, and I treasure her daily. Her favorite thing is to wrap her arms around my neck and nuzzle my face.

[resonant]

It's hard, for sure. And she depended on me for everything, so sometimes I feel like I've forgotten something critically important!

A surprising number of the people responding have/had black cats. I guess I knew they were common so I shouldn't be surprised. They're such beautiful creatures.

[amalthia]

Sorry for your loss, I miss my two cats and I still find myself checking the floor for cat tails before I roll my office chair backwards.

Here is a picture of Tiger.

[resonant]

Aw, that's a happy and relaxed cat!

[musigneus]

This is Onyx, who had no idea how those bits of carpet came loose... I saw him at a pet adoption event, backing away from a small child who was poking at the cats but stepping forward when an adult volunteer came by. When she walked away, he reached one paw out and started working on the latch to his cage. I called my parents to come meet him (my husband's major flaw is a severe allergy to cats), and he went home with them. It took them a few days to realize that it wasn't them forgetting to turn out the kitchen light at night, it was Onyx jumping up to hit the switch and turn it back on after they'd gone to bed. And my dad didn't keep forgetting to close doors; Onyx could work lever doorknobs. I joked that they were lucky he hadn't figured out the phone, and a few weeks later my mom called me to tell me that my dad had found the phone off the hook one morning - and now they had a long distance call to Bermuda on their bill. 😂 But he was also an incredibly sweet and soft lap cat. He has been gone a few years now, but I still miss him.

*hugs* I'm very sorry for your loss.

[resonant]

Oh, wow, sometimes your life would be easier with a cat who was a little dumber, huh? The spouse's cat learned to turn on the faucet, but fortunately he got bored with that pretty fast.

[twistedchick]

I'm so sorry she's gone. It's hard when they've been with you so long, and they are such good friends with you.

Zoomy, my butterscotch boy, is nearly cat-sized, long and narrow, but he still squeaks like a kitten most of the time.

[unavee]

Sorry for your loss. When my cat died, I also kept thinking I saw movement out of the corner of my eye or could hear her tapping around on the floors like usual. When my mom retired, she adopted so many stray cats that somehow wandered into her home. All of them had such big personalities. I still miss them.

My current cat, Pretzel, started losing her hearing about a year ago and has now learned to scream at the top of her lungs. I'm not even sure if she wants anything, because she always looks so surprised when I show up in her field of view and ask her what's up.

[havocthecat]

I'm sorry that you said goodbye to her, but so glad you had so long with her.