RIP James

[mrkelley23]

I am not the animal lover that some on this Bored are, but many pets have owned me, and I have never purposely harmed or neglected them.

Six years ago, we adopted two cats, and we named them Moony and Tonks. They were adopted from the local Humane Society, of course, and they were less than six weeks old. After two weeks, Tonks was not right, and even we newbie cat owners could tell it. We took her to the vet, and it turned out she had parvo, a lethal disease for her and terribly dangerous for Moony. We had Tonks put to sleep, bleached the entire house, and then when we were sure that Moony had not caught it, we went back to the Humane Society. We were only supposed to adopt one more cat, but since we had three kids, and kids two and three could not agree on which cat to adopt, we got two more, which we named Lily and James.

James was our youngest's cat, and we could never figure out why he was so adamant that we should adopt him. Noah (the youngest kid) was always very easygoing and didn't have strong opinions about much of anything. But he insisted we adopt James. James was funny-looking, with rough orange fur, and was either not very smart or had some kind of vision problem. He would, every night, go over to the communal water dish and paw at it, as if to make sure that it was, indeed, the water dish. Half the time he would knock it over, forcing me to clean up the mess. Then he would go over and eat dry food only, disdaining the more expensive wet food. That made Lily very happy, since she could eat both portions.

None of our three cats are what you would call "lap cats." It's not that they weren't affectionate, but they just did not like being on a lap for any length of time, for some reason. James was the closest we had to a lap cat. He was very affectionate, but his preferred position was just off of a lap, with one paw on a leg -- just enough to establish that contact. He mostly slept upside down. His fur was rough, not soft, and he had to be brushed more than the others. When we had company, the other two would hide, with Moony coming out long enough to do acrobatics and freak out, while Lily would just hide. James wanted to greet everybody and smell their stinkiest parts.

Yesterday, I got home about 5:00, and immediately went to the computer and started to look at Lyrically Speaking games. Wendy got home about half an hour later, said hi to James, and started to head to the bedroom to change. She stopped, and said, "James?" And again. And again. Then she said, "Mike, is he breathing?" I got up, went over, looked carefully, and said, "No, I don't believe he is." I pushed on his leg, long enough to see how stiff he was. Then we panicked. Neither of us had any idea how to deal with a dead pet in our home. After some googling and phone calling, we finally figured out that our only hope of doing something that night was animal control, and if that was to be the case, we only had about ten minutes to make it there. I had to do some talking to the lady who was running things there, as she had already locked the door, but luckily, she had compassion.

My apologies to any of you who think we should have buried the cat ourselves. Our state has pretty strange requirements about pet burial, and our subdivision doesn't allow it at all. To let the vet do something would have meant waiting until the next morning, and I don't know if Wendy or I could have taken that. We did the best we could for a cat that we loved for six years. Can you tell I feel guilty?

In retrospect, the only symptoms James showed were a tendency to sleep a lot more toward the end. But he passed peacefully, no signs of trauma, and he died in a home where he was cherished. I only hope I'll be that lucky when it's my turn. Go, James. Go and join all the other four-footers we've had to say goodbye to. Now maybe you can roam outside without getting chewy-chews. And you don't have to submit to Moony any more. Love you, bud.

[Beebs52]

Tears and hugs, Mr. K. Lucky the black cat died at home after 17 years. I put him in the garage for the night before taking him o the vet in the morning and hoped pet semetary didn't come true. You did good. He's frolicking now.

[MarleysGh0st]

Condolences to your family, especially to Noah, who chose him.

[a1mamacat]

Hugs to all of you. James sounds like he fell into happiness with you, for his short time.

[christie1111]

Sorry for your family's loss. Glad James found a happy home for as long as he had.

[Ritterskoop]

You did great - James left you as peacefully as he knew how.

The Rainbow Bridge story is helpful for some folks at times like this (just google it up), but it was clearly written by someone who knew dogs and maybe not so much cats. Most of them will not run to us even when we join them over the bridge, but sit still and wait to be picked up.

[ghostjmf]

RIP James, & my condolences to your family & especially Noah, for whom James was Special Cat. And I bet the feeling of Specialness was reciprocated.

[AlphaDummy]

No need to feel guilty, though...you did the best you could. RIP, James.

[silverscreenselect]

Sorry to hear that. RIP James.

[tlynn78]

We can all only do what we can do. Hugs.

[T_Bone0806]

James got a good home, food and affection. What more can a critter ask for? That's much more than so many dogs and cats ever get. I'm sure if he could've talked, he would've said "well done. Now pet me and feed me, not necessarily in that order".

I love cats.