The End Game

 Our kitty cat needed us.  We struggled with the decision.  But we knew she needed us to make the right one.

We miss her.

*****

ElGee was born in a litter of kittens in an apartment complex where a friend of our youngest daughter lived.

Amanda already owned a young cat named "Baby" when the friend contacted her in an effort to save the kittens.  

"I'll take one," our daughter committed to be part of the unorganized rescue.  The teeny white male she named McGarnigal.  

The even tinier black and white female, that she temporary dubbed  'the little girl',  was also delivered to Amanda's apartment.  Little Girl had been promised a home by a third friend.  The promise was never kept and "Little Girl" became family.   Whispers from the first friend indicated the remaining kittens disappeared and she was pretty sure they'd been dumped.  

A year passed and another little girl joined the family;  my now 16 year old granddaughter Curlymop.  Then McGarnigal got out one day, ran into the street, and died instantly in the traffic.

December 2007 brought eviction notices to the entire apartment complex where Amanda lived so Little Girl came to live with us. 

Temporarily.

We called her L.G. because it was easier to say than Little Girl.  On her first veterinarian visit I spelled it "elGee" for no reason I can recall.  It has remained elGee for almost 13 years.

The past several years she's been somewhat fragile with the symptoms of kidney disease.  You do what you have to do to keep them comfortable and as healthy as possible with the diagnosis.  The veterinarian kept close tabs with blood work-ups and physicals.

We noticed some odd behavior recently that didn't seem to jibe with the symptoms of kidney failure.  She would stare at the wall or the air vents as though she saw something that put her on edge.  Her meow became a harsh rasp and awoke us during the night.  I thought she was having some confusion.

Then last week she suffered a violent seizure as my husband and I watched in horror.

Cancer.  Tumor.  Pressure.  

I still thought I couldn't let her go.  Maybe a little more comfort and care?  

But the veterinarian spoke.

"She's played right up to the end game.  You can't ask her for much more than that."

So, we didn't.

*******


Hiding in my closet in her recent confusion.  Oh Sweet Kitty.

*******

p.s.  Baby, the other cat displaced in 2007, went to live with our eldest daughter.  They called her Penelope and she lived until the fall of 2019.         


 





Comments

Jill said…
I am sorry for your loss.
4:45 PM, September 12, 2020
Far Side of Fifty said…
So sad to lose a four legged friend...it is so lonely without them. My sympathy to you and your husband...even knowing you did the right thing is hard :(
7:24 PM, September 12, 2020
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apparitions in my Garden

Image
Karmyn is the host of Fun Monday this week with a subject that is near and dear to her heart. Not to mention her knees and fingers. But I mentioned them anyway. The subject? --- What's Growing In Your Garden. As soon as I signed up I grabbed my camera and headed out the back door. Alyssum, lady's mantle, gaillardia, Jupiter beard, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember is blooming in this photo. We didn't put as many annuals in this year so I miss all the yellows and reds that we often enjoy. But, something else showed up in that surprised me. Can it be that my yard is haunted? Cheeky little ghost! A shot from the deck near the hammock shows off some ornamental grass, petunias, pond plants ... and that bold apparitio
Read more

An Old Cold Spot

Image
My brother Mike emailed me this photo last night.  He said this was a goodbye salute that he snapped today in his garage where this old freezer has been chugging away since 1988.  That was the year our mama decided she was tired of bending over and digging through it.  Besides, she no longer needed the capacity and hadn't for several years. Mike and my sister-in-law  spent the next 25 years "digging" through this old freezer.  My sis-in-law was very good at keeping it and the cupboards stocked.  The two of them kept promising each other that "It is going to die soon, so we will just keep it until that day." Twenty-five years may seem like a very long life for a freezer.  It is MUCH older than that. Sears only sold Coldspot through 1976.  I thought that my parent's purchased this freezer in the sixties.  My brother said he put the serial number 'on-line' and it matched a 1953 manufacturing date.   Here is a close up of the make and model that
Read more

I Can Almost Smell it

Early this moring I got a Sn@pch@t from my 13 year old granddaughter. A short video panarama of the students and the classroom in one of her 8th grade subjects. In that moment I regressed sixty years to the little rural six room school I attended. The chalk odor greeted my nose at the front entrance. The hallway seemed dark and wide from my childish perspective. The steam radiators clanked and hissed throughout the winter days. Sometimes wet gloves were set on them to dry, which reminded me of wet dog as the wool singed from the heat. What we called 'the cloackroom' was a large open ended closet that contained hooks for coats and a built in bench. As there was no cafeteria, the large closet also held our lunch boxes. So by the late afternoon the over-ripe banana peels and the left over peanut butter sandwiches were in a winning battle to offend the nostrils. I don't even need to mention the stinky boots and wet socks. But hey! The windows were push up to open
Read more