Puck died during the night.
We had Puck for 18 years, and he was at least 2 years when he came to us. We found him living feral in the alley behind our old house; he was diving into dumpsters, etc. He just started hanging around us, and even though we had another cat, he stayed. I took this photo of Puck on Sunday.
We suspected at the time that he was a survivor of the house down the street that had burned down; the fire was suspiscious, as were the people living there. We all figured it was a drug house from the activity going on there. After the decision to keep him, I took him into the vet to have him nuetered, but the vet said he had been neuretered and in fact, the stitches were still in him. They were old, but there. So someone had decided to have him neutered in the past six months or so. Yet no one claimed him.
Puck didn't like to be kept in the house; he always stayed right around the house, on the porch, etc. and liked to come in for visits and of course, food, but he wasn't a typical house cat. Yet he was so damn loving and affectionate! He would sit in my lap for hours, just purring and letting me pet him.
He was a real warrior; he liked to perch and sit up high; in his younger days he ran off other cats, as well as dogs.
He came with us when we moved to our present house. The past few years, he developed a bad allergy to fleas, and I became allergic to his fur, or dander. Still, I didn't care. Then he started to have bad problems with his teeth, ....basically, he just got old.
We knew he was letting go of life these past couple of years. Just his overall behavior, just getting old. Since Sunday he stopped eating, would stay outside, --- sit was clear it was his time. I had the most emotional, conflicted up and down few days; do I take him in to be "put down?" But he wasn't suffering, and it seemed a real dishonor to his spirit to take him out of the yard he loved, the outdoors and nature he was so much a part of, and have his last hours spent in an unfamilar place. . .
So we let him go. It was hard, so damn hard! Both of us knew he was going to pass away last night, so we dug a hole under the rose bush he loved to lie under, and this morning, at 5:45 a.m. when I checked, there was Puck, dead, on our porch by his water dish and little bed.
We buried him this morning.
Good bye, Puck. You were such a loving, loyal, good cat. Thank you for being in our lives.
5 comments:
Condolences on the passing of your pet. He was lucky to be loved by you.
Awwww Regan, I am so sorry for your loss. That's the worst pain I know. I could only visualize you in tears as you typed.
I lost a doxie I loved dearly and I tell you, I mourned that dog more than I have a human being 'I kid you not'. They really can become a big part of our lives especially when they give back.
My dog BooBoo was a runt of the liter miniature doxie. Daily I would take him to work on my motorcycle in my jacket. He went everywhere with me on that motorcycle. His little head would stick out above the top of the zipper and his ears would flap in the breeze.
I have a dog now that I wish would just disappear. He's so unaffectionate and will pay no attention to either of us except to get affection for himself - constantly. We salvaged him from the pound while he was going through a heart worm regiment. He has no idea how lucky he was because it is a burden to anyone who would take that dog.
I've lost many cats over the years and I miss them all and that pain has disappeared but the pain of that doxie still remains and he died in 1987.
I am allergic to cat dander too but I say you go out and get yourself another Puck and you'll start to feel a whole lot better soon.
I am so sorry to hear that. I know exactly how you feel, especially with a cat you have had for 18 years. It leaves a big hole because you are so used to them being there. Not to mention that you love and miss them. Hang in there.
xoxoxoxoxo!
My condolences, Regan. I too know how you feel as I once had an 18 year old cat, many years ago now. But I remember the pain when he died, and the hole in our lives that he left behind. Look after yourself.
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