SO – We went out of town for 5 days.  (I’ll write about that next time)  When I got back to town and got home, I found my cat dead.  I knew it was coming, but wasn’t expecting it yet.  My poor baby.  I hate that it happened when we weren’t here and I hope she wasn’t miserable (more than normal) while we were gone.  I had my Grandma coming over daily to check on the cats, but Forrest is the type of cat that hides all the time and doesn’t come out to say hi to anyone but us.  Grandma would find her (usually behind the couch) just to lay eyes on her and confirm she was OK.  Which she had.  The last day before we came home though it snowed and she wasn’t able to make it over.  Though she made sure the cats had clean litter-boxes and plenty of food and water to make it an extra day because of the weather and her being home-bound.  Well – between then and when we got home, she passed.  I saw her laying in a spot that she normally wouldn’t lay and not moving, so I just knew when I saw her.  I went down and said her name, but no response.  So had to go tell Tommie.

In the past I’ve always had to make that dreaded decision to have a pet put to sleep.  That is the WORST.  You feel responsible for the pets death….well, I always did.  Even if it’s the best choice.  I hate it.  We almost got to that point with Forrest, but I kept choosing to try to just make her feel better.  I had a lot of tears yesterday.  Today we called the vet to see what our options were.  Since the ground is frozen we couldn’t bury her ourselves, so we brought her into the vet’s today to have her cremated.  I’m going to miss her.  She was a good pet to us.

She was 14 1/2 years old.  Born in 1999, we have had her for most of our marriage.  I got her (and her adoptive sister) from the pound in Gladstone.  She has always been a skiddish cat.  She was just a little kitten when we got her.  Her tail was twice as long as she was, and she just had to grow into it.  When we brought her home, all she wanted to do was hide.  If there was a small hole to be found, she’d crawl into it and freak me out.  As a kitten she got caught IN the wall.  She got caught behind the cabinets.  She crawled up into furniture.  It was very stressful.  She’d get in tight spaces and just meow and I’d freak that she was stuck and I couldn’t reach her.  That is where she gets her name from.  From the movie, Forrest Gump.  “Run, Forrest!  Run!!!!”  That is what she’d do when she saw people.

It took a while, but eventually she came around and would let us pet her and cuddle her.  It took years, but she did get there.  She never did, even in old age, though, let us pick her up.  It made her very uncomfortable.  We could pick her up, but she was waiting with baited breath the whole time to find the opportunity to jump down.  She enjoyed having her butt beat.  We could slap her hind quarters for hours and she’s just love it, coming back for more and giving us love nips.  She was very playful, giving us little bites that barely touched the skin.  She loved to jump on my lap anytime I was sitting or laying down and put her wet nose on any exposed skin and just sit there forever like that, with her forehead against my arm and nose touching me.  She really loved us.

She would also bring all the toys we had and carry them, meowing the whole way, and lay them in our shoes or outside our door or on our bed.  She has even brought whole CD’s up from the living room to the bedroom for us.  I’d throw the toys back downstairs and she’d carry them up again.  Always made me smile.  She also had the softest fur!

There have been very few people that she has let near enough to her to pet her.  I can count them on one hand.  If you were one of them, feel very fortunate.  She also never really got along with our other cats.  She could usually hold her own, but our newest addition, Poopy, would not leave her alone and at one point I was really looking to give him away because he would not leave her alone and he’s so much bigger than her.  Every once in a while you’d see them all snuggled together or grooming each other and all would be fine, and then other times you’d hear hissing and screeching, and see blood streaks on the wall.

Over a year ago now, she started to feel bad.  She was coming out more often and laying in the open against the walls or vents and then she got to where she was throwing up a lot.  Every day, she’d throw up and here towards the end she was losing weight, and not grooming herself like she should. We were giving her medicine to try to help inflammation she was obviously having in her intestinal track and giving her food for sensitive stomachs, but she was getting old and I knew her time was coming.

R.I.P., Old Woman.  Thank you for coming into our lives and sharing yours with us.  We will miss you.  You were a great pet to us.