Sunday, April 13, 2014

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Unexpected Death of Beloved Pets

This week is Spring Break for these parts. I have to say, it has been a horrible Spring Break for our household. I had intended to continue to do half schooling during this Spring Break because we a slightly behind, but that plan went out the window pretty early on when I discovered my cats had been poisoned.

Our two kitties are indoor/outdoor kitties. Were indoor/outdoor kitties. We got Miss Em from the humane society in Stuttgart. Trixie was a feral cat that adopted my second son. They loved to explore and adventure. I know that the lifespan of indoor/outdoor cats are much shorter than strictly indoor cats. Trixie was always at home outside though and Miss Em soon followed her sister.

Monday morning, Miss Em vomited in our bathroom. I thought she was just eating the grass and it upset her tummy. We went on our errands, one of which was to stop by a pet store to pick up some oat grass. After we finally made it back home and settled a bit, I heard Miss Em yowl slowly, painfully and lowly. Little Duder was being nice and calmly petting her, but I knew he likes to cradle her, so I intervened and picked her up. Immediately, I knew something was not right. She didn't "feel" right. Her eyes were glazed and her inner eyelids were covering the inner portion of her eyes. When she seized we took her to the vet even though we don't have any income and we knew it could be expensive. In the end, we chose to end her suffering. It was so heartbreaking. I hoped Trixie wouldn't have gotten into the same poison.

Tuesday morning, Trixie was lethargic and vomiting as well. She had the exact same symptoms as Miss Em. Double, triple and quadruple heartbreak. Roosiers was at a church sponsored outreach program and Trixie was his cat. All the children loved the cats. Despite unintentional roughness, the cats were very patient with the kids when cornered. We had to pick u Roosiers and we all as a family made that fateful appointment. Listening to Trixie yowl was awful. We couldn't let her die slowly and painfully.

We suspected antifreeze poisoning and the vet agreed. We have no confirmation because we couldn't afford the bloodwork. The signs were there. I walked the neighborhood and I sure enough found a neighbor who stored their antifreeze open in their yard. It is also possible that some other neighbor might have had a spill in their driveway. It doesn't take much antifreeze to poison a cat. We informed our neighbors of our circumstances in hopes of saving their pets as well. But I have to say, our neighborhood is very much lacking the kitty presence that it had just a week ago.

Needless to say, Spring Break was a bust. I particularly love cats and to lose them that way was so difficult. I'm in mourning. I made a little video tribute to my cats. Here is the link to the video on YouTube==> Rest in Peace Beatrix and Miss Mistoffelees.

Carol