I don’t know if I can take any more. Claudette was the fourth cat we’ve lost in 2020. Plus we lost a dog about a year ago. 2020 can go take a long walk off a short pier.
Claudette was our third cat, and the first we got after moving to Arizona. She was my favorite. She was 16 years old. My wife wanted a male gray cat we could name Claude. We found one at a PetSmart but he was a little too crazy for our liking. There was this beautiful tortie in the cage above him. She won me over right away. I said, “what about her?” My wife said she liked her but said we could continue looking and come back if we didn’t find anyone else. I said, “what if she’s not here when we get back?” We took her home right then.
After getting 2 more cats the next year and two more two years after that we discovered that she would be much better in a single cat household. She was picked on and was afraid to use the litter box and started going under the couches. We decided to put her in our master suite and keep the other cats out. She adjusted so well to that and was very happy, even though a dog or two would also sleep in that room.
A few year ago we almost lost her. Her kidney values were off the chart and we didn’t think she would survive the weekend. She proved us wrong. After a Saturday at the vet on an IV she bounced right back. She had another down turn a year or so ago but recovered nicely. The third time was not the charm though. Apparently this time she stopped eating and her blood sugar dropped dangerously low. The vet put her on an IV and she stopped breathing. The put a breathing tube. Once they found out how low her blood sugar was and gave her something she started fighting them over the tube. They were surprised how well she was breathing on her own when they removed it before sending her home. Since nobody would be at the vet over night they sent her home so we could keep giving her something to raise the blood sugar, she wasn’t really responsive at this point. They also gave us an address for a nearby 24 hour vet. Unfortunately she died during the night. We knew the chances were pretty low when we brought her home yesterday but it still hurts.
