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So completely gutted right now. We adopted 2 kittens, boys, from a local shelter about 3 months back. They were about 4 months old, brothers from a semi-feral mama kitty. It took a few weeks but they got comfortable. Aries grew quite a bit, but Leo was the runt and despite a healthy appetite he didn’t really get much bigger. You could still feel the vertebrae when you pet him. He never cried, he didn’t like to play, he never purred (on 2 separate occasions I think I got the whisper of a purr when he was particularly comfortable). But he was a sweetheart and we called him our perfect little gentleman, because he always looked like he should be wearing a bow tie. Last night should have been a normal one. The shelter gave them these liquid treats in a tube - I forget what they’re called, but my wife ordered them. The kittens loved them - Leo couldn’t figure out that if he was patient we’d squeeze it out for him, he would just bite straight through the tube and make a mess. And last night we gave him one at 6:30 - he ate it like he always did, the only time he was ever really high energy. Then at 8:00 he had diarrhea. After we cleaned it up we found him laying down strangely. It’s hard to explain, but he always sat a certain way and this time he was laying down splayed out awkwardly, looking ill. We took him into my office and locked the other cats out, and sat with him to keep an eye on him. At 9:00, he started to have seizures. And then he was gone. Neither the wife or I slept much last night. We still have no idea what happened. We’ve searched and didn’t find any chemicals he could have gotten into. We don’t have any toxic plants. I’ve had cats for as long as I can remember, but this is the first one I’ve been there with at the end. I just can’t shake the image of him laying in that blanket, eyes open, unmoving. His body cold, his chest silent. I lost both of my remaining grandparents over the past 18 months, people who practically raised me, and never shed a tear. I can’t stop breaking into random fits of sobbing over this baby. Thanks for reading, I just needed to share some of Leo’s short story.
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Jan 18, 2022 16:15
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 22:59 |
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Thanks. Yesterday was really hard, but I slept a bit better last night and I'm managing better today. I'm not sure if he was sick. We called the vet yesterday to take care of the body, and I guess they don't really do cat autopsies or anything? They were tested for FeLV and FIV before we adopted them. We hadn't taken them to the vet ourselves yet - we asked when we adopted them, and the vet said since their vaccinations were up-to-date we only needed to bring them in for their next physical, unless we had concerns.  For context, this is Leo and Aries from 2 or 3 weeks ago. They are the same age, from the same litter. I don't know if I should have been more concerned about how small he was and how he wasn't really growing, but we knew he was the runt and just assumed he'd hit a growth spurt eventually and probably end up being a small kitty.  Goodbye, little gent.
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Jan 19, 2022 16:30
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