Sigh Me

It started a week ago, the evening after dropping Music at the Wolff's.  Sigh Me stopped eating, curled up in her cupboard and there she slept unless I picked her up and moved her to the recliner.

By the second night I could see something was very wrong. On Thursday, I took her to the vet who thought it was probably her kidneys, starting to fail.  She has a history of 'being borderline' so I did not question his diagnosis.  And in addition, she would be 13 next month so she is middle-aged for a cat.

I was watching her 'give up'.  The only food or medicine she would take was what I forced down her and then, we both ended up covered in Science Diet and amoxycillin with little, if any, in her.

When Ron called from San Diego on Friday I was crying every time I mentioned her name.  Frustration, fear of opening that cabinet door and finding a lifeless body, and trying my best to coax anything into her mouth, was making us both crazy.

"Mom, I will be there tonight,"  and son, Ron, hung up the phone and drove the 5 hours to Tucson to join my vigil.  It also helped to have a second person holding her while trying to force the food and medicine down.  Ron was great moral support as well,  but Sigh Me got me back, she peed on me twice!  When Ron left on Sunday I was sure we had lost the battle.  I called my dear friend Suzie and she offered a corner of her yard for a burial.

Sunday night I tried once more to feed Sigh Me but she went mad with anger and tried to bite me.  That was it, no more food.  I wrapped her in her baby blanket and just sat and rocked her and cried.

     

I missed her in my bed at night, curled up in the crook of my legs or on the middle of my back.  She had always followed me everywhere, like a puppy, and would yowl when she couldn't see me.  I had not heard that yowl in a week.  And she had been the perfect traveling companion, content to be next to me as I drove, or in my lap as I read. 

     

Monday morning she was staring into space and did not even respond to her name.  I called the vet to schedule her last visit for Tuesday afternoon. 

But yesterday morning when I opened her cabinet door, she was gone!  I looked throughout the house and found her sitting on a chair in the master bedroom on the opposite end of the house--looking out the window!  She looked at me and purred, for the first time in a week! 

I made her a smorgasbord of dishes but, for some reason she mostly just stares at the food and occasionally licks at it but very little has entered her mouth.  

 If she did not have a thick coat she would probably look like a skinned rat.  She now weighs less than 5 pounds.  And when she walks, she staggers.

She is alert, though very lethargic; and I know we are not out of the woods but maybe we are getting there.

The response from friends, family and readers has been wonderful and possibly she knows it.  One friend suggested that Sigh Me overheard me planning her funeral and that woke her up.  Another suggested  Sigh Me was worried she would disappear--like Music did--if she didn't perk up.  

But last night she came into my bedroom and clawed her way into my bed.  I have hope.