I posted this to the Angels on My Shoulder group, but I will share my feelings here too....
It was one year ago that my precious Tiny went on to the Rainbows Bridge. Everyone deals with Grief differently. I lost four cats that year including Tiny. I was not expecting my Tiny to leave me so soon. He was a little over 5 years old. A neighbor's child brought him to me as a kitten saying her parents were going to get rid of it. She said a cat had kittens under their porch. I did not really believe the story but I took the tiny kitty and gave him a home. He looked to me not even old enough to be separated from his mom. He would later develop a habit of making biscuits in my hair. He did this all his short life. He also would sleep on my head. Purring loudly. I mean literally on my head or he would use it as a pillow. All his life he had an occasional cough. I worried that it was asthma or heart worms. I will never know. The spells were short lived and then he seemed fine. Summer of 2006 he had a vicious coughing spell that literally knocked him off his feet. He also had a cold. I took him to the vet. He was given antibiotics and got better. Several of my other cats got sick too. All with cold like symptoms. Junior his half brother, same mom she was feral, had been hit by a car that spring and stayed inside recuperating. He too got sick and had anemia on top of the cold. Long story short I wound up losing Pumpkin who was hiding symptoms from me and not eating. He was anemic and jaundiced when taken to the vet. Two day later I had to take him back and he stayed on IV for two days. Seemed better the second night there he crashed. He was a shell of himself and I had him PTS. I took Junior back to his vet to make sure he was ok because he had similar symptoms. He had a fever of 106.5 so they kept him. The vet called later wanted to do a feline leukemia test and it was positive. Turned out Tiny was positive too. Junior already had classic symptoms. Tiny was over his cold and never showed symptoms. I also had another positive cat who was PTS as he was also positive for FELV and FIV. He had also been sick. I would have probably done that differently had I known what I know now. The rest of my cats were ok and vaccinated. Tiny had been a little under the weather, but nothing earth shattering or I would have had him checked out. Christmas day it rained all day. Tiny seems a little distressed, but then again not anything that would indicate what would happen. I watched TV with him and I got up to check my emails. I heard that same violent cough as the summer before. I rushed to the living room. to move him. I though he would vomit. His gums were already turning blue. I gabbed the oxygen tank and it was empty. I went to get the concentrator which is my husbands. Checked on him we are talking less than a minute. His breathing calmed down and he was gone. I am told that it was probably a blood clot he threw and that he did not feel anything after the initial cough. I still wonder if there was something I missed in his short life that could have saved him. I buried him in the rain crying the whole time. It would seem his grave is probably a tad on the lot next to me. Junior still survives. I constantly worry about him. He currently has a URI that he can't seem to shake. Feline leukemia is a horrible disease. Thanks everyone for your comforting words when my Tiny Whiney left me. Sally -- Sally, Eric (not a cat),Junior, Speedy, Grey and White, Ittle Bitty, Little Black, Lily, Daisy, Pewter, Junior Junior (newest) , Silver, and Spike Please Visit my Message board for some pictures. You are welcome to sign up. http://www.k6az.com/ki4spk/index.php?sid=c57c00cf5804ef13853ed6e77a68eed3
