Aug. 13 1988 —- Dec. 26 2000
Cat
The tale of the life of Dennis begins as does his sister
Mittens before they were born.
An employee of a Veterinarian found his mother after a car had hit her.
The Vet was lucky and was able to save her.
The employee took the cat home when she was released
from the hospital. After a while the cat began to gain a lot of weight.
Therefore the employee had the Vet check the cat out to find the
reason for this type of weight gain.
It turned out that the Vet not only saved the mother’s life
but also the lives of four kittens.
We adopted Dennis from this litter with his sister Mittens.
When Dennis arrived home our house was never the same.
We named him Dennis after the cartoon character,
Dennis the Menace. He was unquestionably a menace but a very
adorable and lovable menace.
No matter what he did in a mischievous way and he knew
it was wrong you could not help but laugh.
Dennis would just stand there and give his look as if he was
saying “What’s the matter this is my castle.
You are here just to serve my sister and I as our slaves.
Our say rules – learn to live with it.” We did and have never
regretted the time we had with both of them.
Even though Dennis and Mittens were from the same litter they
were as different as any brother and sister can be.
Dennis as you see from his picture was a tuxedo cat whereas
his sister was a tabby cat with the M in the
middle of her forehead.
Dennis loved to be with us humans and either be held or
petted or whatever at any time.
No matter where Joel or I were Dennis would be with us.
If I was studying at the kitchen table Dennis would help
by sitting on the books.
If Joel was reading the newspaper Dennis would
be there with him.
When I retired at night Dennis would come with me and
spend part of the night with me.
He especially loved to snuggle next to me.
Dennis although a menace had Joel and myself
around his paws.
Seven years ago we almost lost Dennis to a urinary tract blockage.
It seemed that Dennis would develop granules of stone in
his bladder. We were fortunate in that the Emergency Hospital
and his Vet saved him and we were able to enjoy the moments
we had with him a little longer.
However last fall our world turned upside down.
I always thought that we would lose him to his urinary problem.
However Dennis developed cancer the most fatal of all
cancers Adenocarcinoma. In October 2000 our Vet told us that he
saw a shadow of something in Dennis’ X-rays but he did not
wish to operate now but wait a few months.
It took exactly two weeks for this something to develop into this
fast spreading cancer.
When the Vet operated on Dennis we received a phone call that
it was not worth operating but to put Dennis to sleep.
However after much soul seeking and fate stepping in
we opted for the surgery.
Dennis made it through the surgery and tried like a trooper
to fight this cancer. But it was not to be –
Dennis passed away on December 26 2000.
I keep thinking maybe we should not have opted to wait but
had the Vet operate right away or maybe we should have gone
for a second opinion. However I believe that no matter what
we did Dennis would have passed away because it was just
his time to go to heaven. He waits for us with his sister until such time
as we will be reunited and cross the Rainbow Bridge together.
We will always remember the good times we had with Dennis
Barbara
| Dennis |