It was a rainy day and my daughter left her female Blue Persian for me to care for while she was away. “Baby” was pregnant and due to deliver any day.
At about 10 a.m. she started trying to have her kittens. I guess she must have decided that it was just too much work for her so she just laid there and let me do all the work. The first kitten couldn’t get out fast enough, so she died. I call the vet, but because it was a weekend he decided it was too much trouble, I guess, to come into his office to help me.
The 2nd kitten was born dead. The 3rd was alive and after I cut the cord and cleaned him up he settled in. The 4th was fine too. The 5th also did Ill. The last little guy was born with his “insides outside”. I just could not help him die so I ran him to another vet office and he was put to sleep as there was nothing they could do for one so small.
I finally settled the remaining 3 with their mother, buried the 3 that had died and I went upstairs for a shower. When I came down about an hour later “Baby” has smothered 2 of the babies. There was only 1 left alive. That was my “Babyface”.
I took him from his mother and I became his mother. He was so tiny that he fit in the palm of my hand.
He had a rough few months. I placed him in a little warm box and took him everywhere. He was fed every 2 hours and held and cuddled and loved. I didn’t name him because I never thought he would make it. In fact, I said that if he did, I would call him “Rocky”.
I remember those days of taking him to the vet when “anything” looked odd in a Kleenex box. There I’d be sitting in my PJ’s and a raincoat waiting for them to open only to hear that he really was “okay”.
I used snuggle him and tell him what a sweet “babyface” he had. And, that is how he got his name ….. he just thought it was his name and, so it was.
My “Babyface” would only drink his water from a crystal bowl with ice. He would only eat his “tuna” (which I had to sit and fluff) from one bowl for all of his 14 years. Any attempt at changing these bowls would cause him to turn his back and wait for me to remedy the situation. He ate on the kitchen table and was the “lord” of it. The rest of us could eat with him, but he ate too.
I was his “real” mother. I loved him so and he returned that love 100%.
We had 13 years with little scares here and there, but 13-1/2 wonderful years.
Around Christmas of 2004 I noticed that he was losing weight and of course we went immediately to the vet. We knew he had a gallstone and a non-functioning kidney, but I guess I just thought that he had come through so much he would come through this too. I just couldn’t imagine life without him.
Things sort of went downhill from that point. I tried all kinds of food and he really did try to eat…he just wasn’t hungry I guess. He was an angel and tolerated the IV fluids everyday and really did seem to perk up and feel better. I wanted him to live so desperately and he tried so hard for me.
One particular day at the vet they were trying to aspirate a cyst that had developed on his liver. We were sure that he was going to die any minute after the procedure so I brought him home. I sat rocking him for 42 minutes and he was so lifeless. I felt so bad, I blamed myself for letting them try the procedure. I didn’t want him to die like that and I kept telling him sorry I was. All of a sudden he just opened his eyes, looked at me and hopped off my lap. He went to the table and ate some food all the while looking at me as if to say, “okay, fine, I won’t die this way, but just for you”. It was a miracle that no one could explain.
A few weeks later on that awful day, he was on the table and I had walked away for a few minutes. Somehow, for some reason, he fell off the table onto the chair. I rushed to him and picked him up and held him for a while, but when I put him down on the floor he couldn’t walk right. When I picked him up I saw in his eyes that he was ready to go and was begging for my help.
I called and the vet and his assistant, who had been coming to our home to administer the IV fluids, came. We took “Babyface” out to the sun porch that he loved, placed him on his favorite blanket, and he died peacefully looking at me with those beautiful golden eyes.
I am trying so hard to be without him… I miss him so terribly. Soon, I hope that the wonderful memories will take over in my mind. Soon, I hope some of the sadness will soften and I will be able to think of him and say his name with smiles.
Always loved, always missed
| Babyface |
| Kathy |