Tiger….
I remember the first day I saw you…
Those huge yellow eyes and big fat 14 lb. body…
Full of youth and energy to go with your name Tiger….
We welcomed you to our house with open loving arms….
You were always aware of what was going on….
If the kids were sick you slept with them to watch
and comfort them.
You would sleep on my pillow or at my feet in bed but if I got
too close to you when you were sleeping you’d bite my
foot to let me know.
You even had your own glass of water on the night stand!
How much more could we treat you than a King?….
When the doorbell would ring there you would go running
to see who was there….
When people came over you would always greet them by rubbing
up against their leg…
You were so smart…. We could tell you to sit stay go downstairs
and roll over and get your belly rubbed…that was your favorite thing.
You would stretch out on the floor and lay there just loving it.
You never strayed far from home…with a whistle you would come running
home with that big belly just jiggling from side to side….
You loved to sit on the wood box in the yard by the fence to watch for mice….
And could you ever catch them fast!
You loved to sit outside at night when it was still and quiet….
Such a pretty boy you were….
Stray cats were not allowed on YOUR property….
Even though you were declawed you would fight them off….
And also even though you were neutered you would spray anything
that was our property to let ever other cat know
that this was your turf!
You weren’t too bad in the car either…most of the time you would
lay on the back seat and look around with the occasional meow….
Then one day…you started drinking alot of water…we thought
you were going senile and forgot….
Then we noticed that your mouth looked sore when you were eating
so we took you to the vet….we showed her that you had a
big cavity on your tooth.
She wanted to give you antibiotics to get your mouth feeling better
before she took that badly decayed tooth out….
Soon after that you started to not look too good….
You stayed in the rec room downstairs most of the time…
you didn’t want us to pet you very often and looked very sad…
Then on Cara’s birthday you scared me very much…
That night when we were in bed I heard a thud sound and turned
on the light and saw you laying in the hallway you weren’t moving
and when I went to turn the light on I stepped in a big piddle of pee.
I thought you had died but then you moved and I realized that you had
a seizure so I wrapped you in a towel and we took you
to the emergency vet…
On the way there you just laid weak in my arms…
They kept you over night and did a blood test to see what happened
to you and put you on IV because you were so sick….
You weighed 10 lbs. when we took you to emergency.
The next morning we had to take to back to you vet and you had to
stay there for 2 days on IV.
The vet phoned us when your blood tests came back…she told us that
your heart rate went down to 90 beats/ minute (should be 140) and
your potassium was very high enough to kill a human and
wondered what we gave you…we told her nothing and then she
told us your kidneys weren’t working very well….
When we picked you up we had to take home IV to give to
you every other day….
I knew then that the antibiotics were what made you very sick so
I found a new vet to take you to….
They had really nice rooms with a bed for you to lay down on and
soft music…. You loved it….they were very nice people.
They gave you acupuncture treatments to help your kidneys and
that made you feel better for awhile.
They checked you all over and told us that the vet that gave you the
antibiotics shouldn’t do that to cats that have kidney trouble…
that’s when we realized why you were drinking so much
water all the time….
They gave us herbs for you to take and tested your blood again….
The herbs helped for awhile…
Then you started having seizures once in awhile so we
took you back…
This time you weighed only 8 1/2 lbs. so they gave us
new herbs to help your kidneys to function better and
also got a new bag of IV with vitamins in this time…
Did that ever give you energy for awhile.
Then I had to take a trip for 3 days….
Tom gave you your herbs and IV while I was away but you
missed me and didn’t eat very much…
That was not a good thing because a day after I got back you
had two seizures before I got home from work and one of those,
you fell down the basement stairs…
Cara told us what happened when we got home from work.
I was sitting in the rec room when I heard a sound and saw you
laying there again from another seizure….
It was sooo sad…
A few minutes later I heard a scratching sound on the carpet and
saw you roll out on carpet at the bottom of the stairs….
That was seizure #4…. I felt so sad for you….
You started to get weaker as the days went on…then you started
hiding under Cara’s bed and didn’t even come see us when
we got home like you used to….
You didn’t even sleep in bed with us anymore…
You just stayed under her bed more and more….
Then we started giving you IV everyday with your herbs to help
you since you looked so sad….
I knew you didn’t feel well anymore….
You were losing more weight too….
Soon after we noticed that you didn’t have a poop for 4 days…
I say you straining to go but nothing came out….
I was getting very worried about you now…
You still had seizures and looked very sad…
You didn’t even want us looking at you so you would turn
away from us….
You didn’t even want to eat any food….
We kept buying all kinds of food for you to get a flavor you would
eat but I knew your kidneys were making you feel sick…
so we bought liver for you to eat that was tasty for you but then
you didn’t want to eat that either.
On Thursday night you had a seizure in the living room when
I was sleeping on the hide-a-bed with Mike who was getting sick from
his cold and coughing all night…I didn’t sleep well because
I was worried about both of you…
The next morning when I was in the rec room checking my email I heard
a thud from upstairs…
I ran up to see if you were ok and you were just getting up from
a seizure under the hide-a-bed…
I went to work and Cara called me to say that her and Mike tried to
give you food and water but you didn’t want anything….
That ‘s when I called the vet and asked if we could bring you in that night…
I knew that if I waited for your appointment on Tuesday you might get
very sick over the weekend and didn’t want you to have a seizure
and go into a coma like the vet said could happen….
I told the vet that I think we have to put you down because you are in
too much pain now and that you can’t even poop anymore…
We took you over to see them at 7pm.
We waited in the hall with a litter box for you until the room was free…
when the door opened you went to walk in like usual but this time
you had to go in the other room….
We went in the room and as usual you jumped up on the bed to
lay down and wait for the vet to come back…
We rubbed your belly and ears and soon you were going to sleep…
you looked very peaceful…
Then the vet came in….
He checked you over and said you were very sick and didn’t look
the same when you came in before. I asked him to weigh you
because I knew you had lost even more weight.
You only weighed 7 lbs. After that they let you lay down for awhile
until his wife was available to help him.
They put you on the table. You didn’t like that because you
were relaxing on the bed…
You growled when his wife came in because she smelled like
other animals on her coat…
We laid you down on a blanket and rubbed your ears and chin….
You growled a bit when they held out your back leg but we kept
rubbing you to relax you….
Then they gave you a needle that made you very tired…
it made you go to sleep forever and made your heart stop….
We cried…alot….
Before they finished the injection you were already
out of you pain…forever…
I kept petting you and the vet checked your kidneys…
he said they are so small…only about as big as an almond…
regular size is supposed to be as big as a walnut….
I knew you were very sick then…. I’m glad you have no more pain now….
The vet loved you too…he kept petting you after you were gone from us….
When we went to leave his wife came out and gave me a big hug
and told me that you were very sick and we did the right thing
because you have no more pain anymore….
I told her that they were very good vets and when we get another cat
we will come back to them.
I don’t want to go to a regular vet ever again and have to go
through this again…
I know you are in heaven now with a healthy body lots of energy
and missing us very much…
Don’t cry for us…we will see you again when it’s our time to go…
I hope you will be waiting for us so that we can be together again….
You can get your belly rubbed all the time when we get to heaven
and be with you again…
We will always love you and miss you very much…
that’s why we have pictures of you with each of us….
We will never forget how loyal you were to us and how much
you loved us and we loved you…
We now have another cat and his name is Smokey…
he’s only 1 year old…he’s a big long haired cat with a
huge fluffy tail…he’s very nice like you…
He will never ever replace you but we miss having a cat in the house
so we decided to rescue him from the SPCA so that he wouldn’t
get put down too. He is a healthy cat that must weigh about 12 lbs.
We have to get him trained to lay down and get his belly rubbed now.
He has been busy checking out the house and even had a sleep in
the bathroom sink!
I know he will make us happy just like you did…
Always loved and remembered by your
family forever….
Nancy and Family
| Tiger |
| Nancy Kwan and Family |