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(1986 - Sept. 5, 2005) |
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Although we had decided not to sell
pups and kittens in our pet shop, Randy and I ended up
selling two of the puppies to people we met through the
store. Still new in town, we met another gay couple
while out in the local bar one night and ending up
trading another puppy for a kitten - Sheagra. With
Siamese blood in her, she's quite a mouthy cat. |
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| I've always been a dog-person so
Sheagra quickly became "Randy's cat". Each night, I cuddle with
whoever was the newest puppy in the house, while Randy and
Sheagra nestled together. Even though I've tried to like cats,
Sheagra and I have always had a love-hate relationship. She
loves the food I give her and hates me. LOL |
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| We tried to have a few other kittens though the years but it never seemed to work out. Sheagra hated Satilo (say-te-low), the lilac Siamese we brought home one a day. I've always referred to that cat as "my little happy seizure kitty". Satilo realized it wasn't wise to tangle with Sheagra; but barged past the dogs to be with me. During the day, she frequently rode draped across my neck. At night, she was always tucked right next to me. Oddly enough, whenever she would get happy (like at meal times, or those odd times when a cat will just dart about for no reason), she would have a mild seizure. Each night as I put her food out on a small table (otherwise the cockers would have gobbled it up), I would wait to catch her. As she would jump up to the food and get a whiff, she would stiffen and fall out. This behavior wasn't too alarming since she would quickly recover and devour the food. Finally, I guess it had been one seizure too many and she passes away at 2 yrs. old. |
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| Through it all though, Sheagra has stayed with me. She's still not happy at all that Randy is no longer with us; but I don't get clawed near as much these days. :) Now if I could only make her quit hollering at me for food every damn time that I go into the kitchen! |
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| It had just turned September 2005, and Sheagra had started to really show her age. She
had been getting thinner than she normally was, and was acting a little odd-ish at times (staring at nothing, meowing at me loudly for no
apparent reason, sitting in my empty tub). Within the last few days, she had barely been eating anything. |
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| Unfortunately, at 19 years old,
none of this was actually unexpected. For years, I had joked
about my cat outliving Randy and all the other dogs I used to
have. I knew she was probably doing it out of spite, until she
could be the ONLY pet in the house. LOL |
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But, for as long as she has managed to
stay around (and pretty darned active too for such an
old cat), she just hadn't been able to outlive the new
pack of dogs. While the disaster of Katrina was
happening in the Gulf, Sheagra has completely quit
eating for her last two days. I noticed that she was
just lying around in the bathroom, which is very odd,
even for her. She seemed just too weak to move around
too much. As Jim and I kept watch on her during the day,
her condition worsened. |
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| By night time, with only a few sips of milk, she was quite hoarse and was barely able to meow at me. I continued to keep her comfortable and watched her until late into the night. Awakening near 5:30am (I've had some bad
insomnia anyway this summer), I went downstairs expecting the worse. Maybe even anticipating it. Unfortunately none of my pets has ever passed away peacefully in their sleep. I was almost hoping that she had already passed away so I would not have to make a trip to the vet visit (on Labor Day) to once again lose another pet. |
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| However, Sheagra was still hanging
on; but she had moved out into my computer room and was in the
corner behind the bathroom door. I grabbed a pillow and a
blanket that I keep in the living room (for those sick or
insomnia nights, as the previous night had been for me), and cuddled up on the floor with my kitty. For many years, Sheagra has always come up into my bedroom and gotten her belly scratched for a while, until prowling the house during the night; but in the last year, she just quit that practice. For the last few nights though, she had been back into my bedroom for her regular lovings. Curling up with her on the floor, I scratched her belly for the last night, while she wrapped her paws around my foreman, kneading me with her claws and purring. I let her know how much I had really loved her and that it would be alright for her to leave me. Of course, she was really always Randy's kitty, and he has been waiting for her for quite a number of years now. |
| During the morning hours, I put Sheagra into a
padded box, to keep an eye on her, and to keep the dogs
away, while she lay there, gently breathing and sleeping
peacefully. Every once in a while, I would sit and talk
to her and rub her, and each time she would reach out
her little paw and flex her claws at me - her little
sign of loving me. |
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| Around lunchtime, without much
change in her condition, Jim went out to do some errands (taking
Gabby with him for the ride) and I mowed my small front and
backyard. The previous evening, I had already starting digging a
small grave for what I knew was eventually coming. |
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| Jim and Gabby arrived back as I
was finishing up the yard, bringing lunch with them. While I had
been outside, Sheagra and gotten up and moved from her box, but
I gently replaced her there so the dogs didn't bother her. As I
finished my burger, once again my eyes darted over to check on
Sheagra's breathing. (Throughout the last day, it had been quite
hard to tell at times if she was even still breathing, each of
the many times that Jim and I checked on her.) Then I stared.
Dropping down on my knees beside her, I found that she was just
passed away, a few minutes before 2:00pm. |
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| Gently wrapping her in some white
satin, Jim and I buried Sheagra out underneath the beautiful
purple morning glories. Now I have lost all of the pets that
Randy and I had. Although I'm not really a "cat person", and for
many years Sheagra and I shared a disdain-disdain relationship,
she was an excellent, loving cat. She didn't even mind all the
dogs that much, at times even playing with them and loving them
a little bit. She's going to leave an odd void in my life, and
I'm truly going to miss her. Later tonight, I'll retire her food
bowl to the collection I keep of all my pets that have passed
away - which sadly has become quite a large collection over the
years |
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| After 15 years, Sheagra has put up with alot of puppies and can still outrun a pack of dogs anyday. |
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| 2003 |
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