We lost our beloved cat Sony on Saturday, 5/31/08. We’re not exactly
sure of his age, as we were not the original owners. Apparently they
had named him Sonya but when they took him to the vet, “Sonya” was not a
female. Our daughter got him from her roommate in 1995, and he was at
least a year old then, so we figure 14 or more. He lived with her
until 2001, when she moved from Virginia to New Hampshire and could not take him, so he
moved in with us and our dog Daisy. They became great friends, slept
together on the couch or in bed with us. In December 2003, we lost our
Daisy dog, age 14 ½, to a blood disease. We were all heartsick and
lonely for a dog. A friend connected us with one who had been in a
shelter for 9 months, about 3 or 4 years old, mixed breed. She needed
a home that would have the patience and time to make her comfortable.
She was very shy at first, but for some reason Sony was a bit afraid of this
new creature. If Gypsy barked, he would run, and she would try to
chase him – although she would never leave the living room. She had
made that her “crate”. So Sony cat had 4 bedrooms, basement, garage,
dining room, and most of the kitchen – but stayed out of the living room.
We adjusted our lives to spend equal time with each of them. My
husband ate in the dining room with the cat, I in the living room with the
dog. The dog slept in the living room, the cat with us. We put a
television in the dining room and took turns watching it in there or the
living room.
In January 2007 Sony stopped eating and we almost lost him. He was
diagnosed with thyroid and kidney problems. We fed him with a syringe,
to get him eating again, gave him thyroid medicine daily and subQ fluids at
first weekly, then every 4 days. He bounced back and was great.
His blood work was where it should be. He was eating, playing, jumping
on the table, up and down the 3 floors of our house, and carrying on great
conversations with us – he could even say “hello”. The last few weeks,
he was getting braver with Gypsy – getting nose to nose with her. I
was excited, thinking they would finally be friends. Then Saturday
morning my husband found him at the bottom of the steps, unable to move his
rear legs. We rushed him to the emergency room, where they determined
he had a clot that blocked the blood flow to those legs. They also
determined that he had an enlarged heart and congestive heart failure – had
never shown any indication or symptoms of that. He had a geriatric
exam the end of February and blood work in March, and everything was okay.
So, in addition to his age and his thyroid and kidney problems, they
couldn’t save him. We were in shock; he had been doing so well!
We miss him terribly. We had him buried in the pet cemetery next to
Daisy, and put one of his blankets, toys, catnip, and a letter to him in
with him. I still can’t believe he is gone. I am truly thankful
for those bonus 16 months, when we thought he was gone. The more you
love them, the more it hurts when you lose them.
