Dear Readers;
Our beloved cat Imp had been failing. Once a fat cat- the 17-year old was growing thin and moving slow. The vet’s diagnosis this August was dire. “Kidney failure, not long to live.” We changed his food, gave him subcutaneous saline treatments- singing to him to calm him down because he didn’t much care for the process! He continued to have a twinkle in his eye and even a month later “Bwana hunter” brought us “gifts” (which Ron promptly disposed of outside.) Imp didn’t seem to be in pain but he was bony and smelled foul. He followed us everywhere around the house and on short walks outside. He cuddled and snuggled whenever we sat down. Bedtime was on my belly with purrs before he melted and fell asleep. I’d awake 6 hours later and neither of us had moved.
We knew the time was soon approaching, but how do you make a choice to end the life of a beloved pet? Yesterday morning he let us know to let him go before the pain got to him, while he still had dignity. He went outside to enjoy the sunny morning, then came back to rest his weary self on the purple blanket.
We brought him to the vet and before the injection was drained into him he was gone. We wrapped his tiny body up and buried him in our back yard, near the weeping willow where we buried our Samoyed McCloud 7 years ago. The sun is shining again today, and our hearts are heavy with sadness.
Imp came into our lives quite unexpectedly, filled our lives with joy. He was a mensch cat- mischievous, funny, stubborn and very smart.
He was a healer. …The story of our “Thanksgiving trip Miracle” captures it…Imp was perhaps a year old. My parents were visiting us in Massachusetts and then we planned to caravan back to NJ for Thanksgiving holiday. But Dad’s car broke down on the road and Ron had to wait for repairs. So though I was grumpy and tired and not looking forward to a 6-hour drive, I found myself at the wheel with my parents along with McCloud and Imp. My mother was quite ill and in pain at the time. Mom was complaining, but soon Imp snuggled up to her and wrapped himself around her neck. He purred…so loudly that mom drifted off to a state of bliss-and peace. She literally didn’t say a peep until we arrived at her door that night. Imp’s comfort made her forget her pain.
One more story of Imp’s remarkable intelligence. As McCloud aged he started to lose mobility in his hind legs, and his eyesight was going. Our house has a steep flight of stairs and the dog became afraid to try to negotiate down them. One day I noticed Imp on the stairs right next to McCloud. The cat took one step down and waited for the dog to meet him. He took another step and looked to the dog to come along. My jaw was open as I witnessed this, and I thought it was an aberration. But it wasn’t. Imp became McCloud’s guide dog and for the next several months, that’s the way McCloud made it down to the kitchen and living quarters—being guided every morning, one step at a time, by Imp!
Laurie Tema-Lyn
Practical Imagination Enterprises
908-237-2246
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