Friday, January 21, 2011

Albion


2/14/1994 - 1/20/2011

We brought Albion home as a 6-week old rescue. She was being nursed along with a dozen other kittens--her mother having had a litter of her own, and also having saved another motherless litter. We bought her and her litter-mate, a pure black cat we named Baghira.

Albion was chosen out of a pile of siblings, she broke off from the group and found my coat and climbed the inside lining to the collar. She was a climber all her life, even climbing the ladder (hand-over-hand, human-style) to the loft in our daughter's room.

She had a hyperactive thyroid and the medication sent her into renal failure. We had her put down last night. It was good timing, there wasn't much suffering, really.

I didn't realize I would love cats so much. Baghira is still doing fine. She also has a bad thyroid, but is holding out and is as hale and hearty as a 17 year-old cat is likely to be.



4 comments:

JimII said...

Man, I'm sorry to read this. I think I am more attached to the pets we've lost as adults than I was to the family pets that died when I was a boy. That seems so strange to me.

Inevitable as it is, it still sucks.

Love,
Jim

Matt Dick said...

Thanks. Yes I find the same thing about attachments. I think it has something to do with the fact that as adults we're responsible for their well-being.

Susan said...

I am so sorry to hear this. You spent almost 17 years with Albion, caring for her and vice-versa. She was loved and gave love back, so the void is there. How are the kids handling it?

Matt Dick said...

The kids are okay. They are both very sad. They deal with it in very different ways, but both are sad.