April 11th, 2008 - Goodbye Pythagoras
Last night, Pi died. Eric wrote a nice tribute and posted a couple pictures at Maggie’s new website. A week ago, we finally got him on a medication to calm him down. We’d spent the last year yelling a lot at him and putting him or Sith in the laundry room by themselves due to fights Pi instigated. The last week was wonderful–no fighting at all. No locking him up. He could sleep with me at night since he wasn’t all jittery and getting up all the time. No yelling. I realized just how much we’d been yelling at him (it often stopped him before he got in a fight) when it was so quiet on the weekend.
But on Wednesday, he was rather lethargic. He barely ate. On Thursday morning, we took him to the vets. He had severe acute liver failure. It is so rare, the vets couldn’t find a single instance of it happening with this drug. There is a warning that long term use of a cousin drug could cause liver failure, and there are only a few known instances of even that happening. So, once again, we had a pet with a weird problem. Only this time, it killed him. :(
At least he had a lovely final week. He spent more time with us than usual. He slept with me. He was around Sith more. He hung out with both Eric and I at night. And, he had one final blast in the pantry–we had to hang the pantry door back up* for while we were gone because he can’t be trusted in there. No matter how we arrange things such as metal jars of beans precariously perched, he manages to get on the shelf of dry goods, knock things off, and chew on them. He hasn’t actually done it for a while. Till Tuesday. He made a huge mess in between me going to work and Eric getting up. So he got in one last fling…..
When Shmi died, it was really tough because she was MY kitty. But we had a number of months to prepare for it. This time, it seems a bit surreal because Pi’s been so difficult, medicating him was our last effort to fix the problems or we were going to have to find a new home for him. So we felt wonderful–we’d finally helped him have a better life (and Sith–the fights were stressing Sith out quite a bit, of course). And he went from healthy cat to exceedingly sick in 36 hours.
Will we get another cat? When Shmi died, we knew during the months before that we’d get another companion for Sith. We actually started looking before Shmi died, and went to the Humane Society right after she was put down, as a way of dealing with the grief. At that point, they had spent every single night together except for two–when Shmi was spayed and when Sith was diagnosed with crystals in his urine and spent the night at the vet’s. We thought he needed a companion. And when Sith and Pi got along (they slept a lot together, for instance) they got along great. But for the most part, we realized Sith could be a single cat. Anyway, in the afternoon while we waited for the vets to let us know when to come back to say goodbye, I was totally thinking, no way can I go through this with more animals that we already have. No more cats. But at the vets, I thought that I really want Maggie to have another cat. Pi and Maggie were best friends and played a lot together. (I always pictured Maggie tearfully leaving for college and saying goodbye to Pi. Since he’s a bit younger than her, this was definitely possible.) But we joked that we have to get an older cat, with some health issue, so that we know in advance what’s wrong with it!
If you haven’t been a long time reader, here’s the scoop on our pets over the last 6 years: Shmi had allergies and OCD requiring daily medication and then died of congenital congestive heart failure, Sith and Pi both have crystals in their urine and require an Rx diet, Emma is deaf and has really bad teeth and gums–she’s lost her canines and another tooth and has gum surgery once a year, Jedi has allergies and had stomach troubles off and on and last fall/winter we thought we were losing him to cancer but whatever it was disappeared after a few agonizing months. As Eric says when I wonder why this keeps happening to us–it’s because we can deal with it, we can afford a higher level of health care for our animals than many families, and because we’re strong enough to get through it and keep loving more pets. Although I wonder if maybe it’s time to just get fish.
I’ll be buying a plant in his memory to place his ashes under. We’re trying to decide between the cherry bushes (because then I’d make a cherry pi someday in his memory) or some aggressive plant that tries to take over the garden.
We decided to let Maggie be a part of saying goodbye, even though we recognize that at this age she has no real idea what’s happening. She didn’t come along with Shmi–she barely even knew who Shmi was–but she and Pi were best friends. We thought she deserved the chance to say goodbye even if right now she doesn’t understand. At least in the future we can tell her about her first best friend. Although it’s hard that this happened just before a long vacation, on the other hand, it might help us all not to have constant reminders of his absence.
* Our pantry is a small addition to the house which is about 18 inches off the group with little or no insulation. With the door on, it boils in the summer and freezes in the winter. Or in April. So we’ve had a baby gate up instead ever since we got pets. The cats were always allowed in there and it’s even where Pi ate his meals. And our pasta, saltines, other crackers, beans, and grits.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:27 pm EDT
I’m so sorry, Annmaire.
:-(
Pi was annoying, but wonderful. In the brief week I knew him, I have indelible memories of Pi causing trouble, and Maggie defensively blaming Sith!
April 20th, 2008 at 6:08 pm EDT
So sorry to hear about Pi. We just lost an older cat to a gallbladder duct blockage. Our other cat, who is a diabetic, was grieving for her buddy so much her blood glucose levels were high. We solved the problem with a new buddy from the spca. Our furry family is doing well now:-)