 | RockydooDomestic Short Hair
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| INTRODUCING: My Fur Baby boy, Best Friend, and Loyal Companion Rockydoo | |||||||||||||||||
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| I adopted Rocky from the Winnipeg Humane Society back in 2003, where I also was once a volunteer (Cat Cage Cleaner and Special Events volunteer) for three years. When my former spouse and my previous cat passed away, shortly after he told me of a special promotion going on there at the shelter he saw on TV, where they were announcing that people who had June birthdays would be able to adopt a cat for free, and so we drove down to have a look at the kitties available for adoption.
After having a look around, I saw Rocky in a small cage by himself. From the moment I took him out and carried him around in my arms, he didn't struggle or squirm, and didn't even react to some of the cats who would hiss or growl at him. I sat down on a chair and he instantly laid down on my lap, settling down to have a cat nap. : ) THAT'S when I knew- he was the cat for me, and we signed all the paperwork and took him home with us that same day. He didn't even need time to settle himself into our apartment in Winnipeg and made himself at home. And so fast forward when we decided to leave Winnipeg for financial/job related reasons in 2002, and after briefly living with my Mom for a couple of months at her house in my former hometown in Manitoba while my spouse found himself a job, and a new place for us all to live while temporarily staying with his aunt and uncle, he came back for us and renting a U-Haul, we moved with Rocky to our new home here in Edmonton. While Rocky is a very laid-back, mellow kitty, we discovered that he does NOT travel well- he meowed and cried almost non-stop the entire 12 hour journey, while in his kitty carrier. Nothing, not even the 'Calm Down' product I found at Walmart you administer by spoon worked. So much for their claims! But we made it here fine, otherwise. And so other life altering changes occurred- 2 or 3 years later, my spouse and I split up after being together for 7 years, and Rocky and I had to move out into a place of our own. The first two places we lived in did not work out so well, but then finally him and I moved into a 1 bedroom basement suite, I still had my job at NAIT, and even though my spouse too worked there, we had parted as friends, and he was still a factor in Rocky's life. Oddly, my spouse and I became very good friends and were closer than when we were living together! He had helped me move those 3 times until I was finally settled in a place of our own, and we would even go for drives on weekend nights, he would help me with my shopping needs as I didn't have a vehicle, and was a great support in many ways to me, including fixing my computer related issues as he was a computer technician at NAIT. Rocky had met many men in my past dating life, and he always instantly warmed up to people- anyone who had met him liked him from the moment they met him and Rocky would even lie on their lap-making me envious! lol He was definitely a people cat, and sociable. A couple of times too when he would meet other cats- the upstairs neighbor girl above mine and my spouse's apartment who would bring her young female kitten over, or when I once rescued a stray cat roaming outside our basement suite window and came through it when I saw him, Rocky would play with these kitties, probably appreciating that he had a playmate. Outside stray cats, like these two orange kitties I called 'The Twins' who were clearly from the same litter that would 'visit' us, Rocky never minded at all either. Rocky just liked everybody he came into contact with. : ) That was one of the best things about him, was his 'mellow yello' temperament. Finally, as I had gotten very fed up with our mice problem in our basement suite, AND prior to that, bed bugs that were a never ending battle, we had to once again be on the move, and while searching for a new place for us to live, I had met my current spouse Dave, who too was looking for a new place, and had answered my Kijiji ad for a roommate. While neither of us were looking for someone, or a relationship at that time, after talking on the phone for hours for a few days, we met in person at my place, and with his help, we moved from the downtown area to the south side of the city, oddly ending up not far from the first place we were living with a male roommate, who lived just a block away! Only this time we were further east, and in a rental house, once again living in a basement suite. Later on to the main floor of that house, later to another rental, but 'heritage' home in a different area, still southside, of the city and now here where we've been for the past year and a half. For all of these moves, Rocky always endured these moves very well, and anyplace I was, that was home to him. As Rocky grew older, health issues started to be a problem, and three years ago, we took him to a veterinarian who told us that Rocky's kidney were failing, and he was in stage 4. :( He also had a high thyroid and we got him on medication, although sadly, having financial/job related issues, we were unable to keep him on this medication since that time, but we of course monitored his health the best we could otherwise, and while starting three years ago he started to lose weight, he otherwise was doing quite well. I was in charge of feeding our 4 kitties (once was 5 but Dave's oldest cat Sassy passed away, age 21). So now Rocky was the oldest of the bunch and he always had a very hearty appetite, meal-time I'm sure was his favorite part of the day when they all were given their 'softie' cat food. And of course, he loved his Whiskas Temptation treats even more! Often gobbling all his up before the other three cats were even finished theirs. Oh, but Rocky could make me rather exasperated though- like me, his bladder was weakened, whether due to his age, or his health issues or both- and there was one time a few years ago when Dave was enraged as Rocky had peed on his mattress (we didn't have a bed frame or box spring, so we were sleeping with it lying flat on the floor) and was so angry he was threatening to throw us out! :( And I now regret a couple of times when Rocky peed on our newly purchased, king sized mattress when he was still agile enough to climb up here and would pee on either my or Dave's side of the bed, and half the time it happened when I wasn't able to monitor what he was doing in the bedroom, then would come in to a 'surprise' and angry, I told him that I would be the one to have him put down!! 'Bad boy, Rock!' I would say to him. I tearily apologized to him for that though, both hours later after doing laundry, and in the hours after he had died. I still feel bad about it though. Unfortunately, the past year or so, Rocky's health started to decline, and he lost so much weight regardless of how much I or Dave fed him, and was skin and bone, now the skinniest cat of the bunch. I would even reserve the other cats wet food leftovers, scoop the remainder up all together, and put it in Rocky's food dish for him to have later, so the other cats wouldn't eat it up. The past two weeks, Dave decided to take charge, giving him Restoralax as our Vet recommended we give him, when Rocky was having difficulty 'going' in the cat box, and he started feeding him once he got up in the morning, in addition to his morning routine of giving him milk. Basically he was feeding him every hour or every two hours, whereas before I was feeding them all at lunchtime. (the other three quickly learned that word and would LOOK at me wide-eyed, when I would say, 'IT'S: lunch time, lunch time!!' Rocky took to sleeping on his kitty bed Dave set up for him in a quiet remote area of the kitchen, and as soon as I'd see him, telling him, 'Okay, Rock!' he would meow like the other kitties. He knew the phrase for years I'd use for him. At times, if the other cats like Geenie walked away from her food bowl, Rocky would go and raid hers of however much she had left! For the amount he ate though, and despite Dave's efforts of giving him even more wet food, while he made mild progress in putting on a LITTLE bit of weight, the past week his health took a downturn, unfortunately. Dave now has been saying that Rocky 'fooled him' and only twice in his life have people managed to do that. I was even cautiously optimistic, and thinking that Rocky would live to see his 17th Birthday, coming up on June 4th. Sadly, that was NOT to be the case. This past week, his health declined dramatically, and rather suddenly. He wasn't just an old senior cat sleeping the day away anymore, and not getting up all that much except to eat and go to the litter box. He grew lethargic, was staggering and swaying when he would walk, and our clue that he knew he was dying was 2 or three days prior, when he made a conscious effort to make his way up the 'kitty stairs' we had bought for him when the vet told us he had arthritis in his spine, that too grew worse and Rocky was having noticeable difficulty getting up to our bed, hence the stairs, but even so, he was now doing that even less and less. That night though, he was determined to come and visit me/us. and laid on the bed with me one day, the night before, on Dave's pillow. Because he knew that soon, his time was quickly running out. Then yesterday, Dave made the decision to carry Rocky, lying on his bed, to me here in the bedroom, as we knew too, that his time was quickly running out, just like the sand in an hourglass. And Dave predicted that he would pass away if not by the weekend, likely that night. Sadly, he was right. And he gently placed Rocky next to me on our bed. My poor boy was clearly in distress, meowing, almost croaking out cries intermittently that tore my heart out, and I did what I could to help comfort him, as did Dave. Together, we spent what would be our last hours together, and I monitored Rocky's breathing, which grew shallow and slower, his eyes glazed over, and unfocused on much. At times he would suddenly struggle to get up, and like the days prior, he would plop right back down. :( In the days prior he had stopped using the litter box, and because of this, toxins has built up inside his body and there was now an odor even Dave could smell outside the bedroom. I noticed Rocky's front right paw suddenly was convulsing or shaking, and called out to Dave. Finally, during supper hour between six and six thirty pm not long after, Rocky passed away. :( Dave was here in the bedroom and he noticed that he had stopped breathing. 'Turn on the light!' I said. Then watching no movement, we knew that was it. Huddled over him, I sobbed for several minutes, finally getting back up and seeing the cats in the living room, staring at me. In the days prior, they had purposely avoided Rocky, although they had on occasion came right up to him, including on our bed, sniffing at him or the odor, then walking away. They knew, no doubt, and had heard his occasional cries of pain whenever they were in here sitting in the windowsill. I will end here saying that that cat has been with me through thick and thin, through good times and bad (a lot of bad, including lonely Christmases when it was just him and me as I have no family here and my Mom had passed away too three years ago, although she knew Rocky and visited us at Christmas), through all the moves, roommates and housemates, men who had come and gone, and more. I feel that I gave him the BEST of my love, just like the Eagles song, and I loved him the best that I could. I always believed and told him this, that God had sent him to me, and he was like an Angel. He and I had our night snuggle sessions together when it was just us, and he loved his tummy rubs, as we laid in the 'spoon' position together, then having enough after several minutes, would lie down at the end of my side of the bed. And then living here with Dave and the Cat Clan, he still enjoyed this with me at times. So I used to say him often, 'So loyal and faithful, and TRUE: My cute cuddly, snuggly little Rockydoo!'. The best cat I ever had. He owned me as much as I had owned him, especially my heart. I have so many pictures of him, it's ridiculous, including some of his fur I have in an envelope I saved, to remember him by. You may be now gone, but certainly will NEVER be forgotten, and as I had told him yesterday, 'I will love you forever.' THE END | |||||||||||||||||
