Murphy Sue
A donation was made in memory of Murphy Sue by Nancy L. Murbach, DVM on Sep 20, 2010.
On June 1, 2010, I lost my beloved tortoiseshell kitty to cancer after more than 15 years of constant and mutual devotion. I first encountered the cat I would name Murphy Sue by "chance" one evening in the spring of 1995 when I was out on the back patio of my apartment and heard a cat's plaintive cries from down below. I went to investigate (with a bowl of milk in hand) and she reponded without any hesitation to my "here kitties," quickly rubbing herself against my leg and lapping up the milk. But I already had a cat, Abby, who was perfectly content to be my one & only and I had no interest in adopting another. Murphy, however, had other ideas.
She somehow figured out which apartment I lived in, climbed up the stairs to my neighbors' apartment and leaped from their patio to mine ... a pattern she would repeat every day for the next 4 to 5 weeks ... making her bed on the extra reclining chair I kept outside. Both my neighbors (who had 2 indoor cats of their own) and I fed & pet her outside, and yet I still resisted making her a part of my home. But I noticed that she and Abby were gradually getting accustomed to each other through the screen door and then my neighbors finally made me an offer I couldn't refuse: they would pay for her to be thoroughly checked out by a vet and, if she got a clean bill of health, I'd let her inside.
The rest, as they say, is history. I'll never forget how, as soon as she came in, she curled up next to me and rubbed the top of her head against my face over and over ... as if to say "thank you, thank you"! She proceeded to show her gratitude and love for the next 15 years, courageously dealing for nearly a decade with an infection that ultimately led to losing all of her teeth; mourning the premature death of Abby (also to cancer) with me; and becoming a great sister -- albeit with much initial resistance -- to my latest adoptee Clancy 6 years ago. The sight of her routinely chasing down the far bigger Clancy and "gumming" him like she still had her teeth was a big source of amusement.
Even in the last few weeks of her life, she did it her way. Not wanting her to suffer for a moment, I called an in-home vet to have her euthanized the very next day after receiving the cancer diagnosis. But literally as the vet was drawing up the syringes, Murphy suddenly began to eat and drink again with a vengeance (which she continued to do for the next 10 days) and did several other things that made they vet say she wasn't ready to go quite yet.
She probably would've preferred to "tough it out" even longer, but by the first of June, I knew it was time to let her go.
And so now I say thank you, Murphy Sue ... thank YOU!
Leslie C.
She somehow figured out which apartment I lived in, climbed up the stairs to my neighbors' apartment and leaped from their patio to mine ... a pattern she would repeat every day for the next 4 to 5 weeks ... making her bed on the extra reclining chair I kept outside. Both my neighbors (who had 2 indoor cats of their own) and I fed & pet her outside, and yet I still resisted making her a part of my home. But I noticed that she and Abby were gradually getting accustomed to each other through the screen door and then my neighbors finally made me an offer I couldn't refuse: they would pay for her to be thoroughly checked out by a vet and, if she got a clean bill of health, I'd let her inside.
The rest, as they say, is history. I'll never forget how, as soon as she came in, she curled up next to me and rubbed the top of her head against my face over and over ... as if to say "thank you, thank you"! She proceeded to show her gratitude and love for the next 15 years, courageously dealing for nearly a decade with an infection that ultimately led to losing all of her teeth; mourning the premature death of Abby (also to cancer) with me; and becoming a great sister -- albeit with much initial resistance -- to my latest adoptee Clancy 6 years ago. The sight of her routinely chasing down the far bigger Clancy and "gumming" him like she still had her teeth was a big source of amusement.
Even in the last few weeks of her life, she did it her way. Not wanting her to suffer for a moment, I called an in-home vet to have her euthanized the very next day after receiving the cancer diagnosis. But literally as the vet was drawing up the syringes, Murphy suddenly began to eat and drink again with a vengeance (which she continued to do for the next 10 days) and did several other things that made they vet say she wasn't ready to go quite yet.
She probably would've preferred to "tough it out" even longer, but by the first of June, I knew it was time to let her go.
And so now I say thank you, Murphy Sue ... thank YOU!
Leslie C.
