Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My Cat Died Today

This is Jagr. She was born in 1995. Jagr is the first cat Ted and I adopted together not long after I moved to Nashville to be with Ted. 2 years ago when we moved to Australia we decided that the quarantine period would be too hard on her and our other cat Woodson so we asked Ted's sister to take them in, which she graciously did. She has looked after them for 2 years and loved them desperately. Both cats have been living in Shangri-La with Mickie and have been really enjoying life. If I'm honest I'll admit that Jagr and Woodson really had become Mickie's cats, not mine anymore.

Sadly today I got a phone call from Ted's mom telling me that Mickie had to take Jagr to the vet because she was very sick. She had developed diabetes and had many kidney stones. She was in pain and even if somehow she survived surgery she would continue to be in pain. So Mickie made the only decision possible and this beautiful animal is no longer in pain. I sit here crying as I type this not only because I'm sad that Jagr died, but because I know that my SIL is suffering because of watching her die. I'm so sorry Mickie. I'm ashamed that I didn't fully think about this before we asked you to take them. I hope your suffering ends soon.

As for my beautiful Jagr, named for Jaromir Jagr, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins, thank you for sharing our lives and for being a great cat. I'm going to miss you. Any of you that think fondly of animals please have a kind thought for Woodson. This is the first time he's been away from Jagr in over 12 years.