Callie

I had to put down Callie today. It was rough. I’m technically an emotionless person. Well, I’m not. They are there. Buried down deep. I’m happier when they don’t come out.

Putting down a pet is such a good reason to let it all come out though. It’s so sad. It’s terrible. A defenseless little pet, who is hurting, who just wants to be next to you. It’s worse than a baby. A baby will at least scream and cry when it’s hurting. The pets, they just plod along happily until they can’t walk, eat, drink, or poop.

Ugh.

So the last month was rough on her. She started having diarrhea. Throwing up more. I was traveling some so I wasn’t there. It’s terrible having a pet confined to one room too. It’s not a life for them. But when you’ve had her 15 years, you can’t get rid of her when you have an allergic family member.

So my daughter is a little emotional. A lot, actually. I’ve been warning her for the last 6 months that Callie is old. She’s an old lady and it wasn’t going to end well. The last four weeks were bad, I knew they were bad. I kept fooling myself though. Then I was gone for a week. When I came back, Callie was literally sitting at my feet. Usually she sits in her spot. I cuddle with her for the first half hour of the day when I watch the news, otherwise she is on her pillow. Every hour I was in here, she was instead sprawled out next to my feet. So I knew it wasn’t good.

Monday came and I made the appointment. She had a mass. It was in her intestines. She’s too old for treatment and I’m not going to do that to a 15 year old cat anyway. I brought her back home because my daughter made me promise that Callie would come back.

The rest of the day is what you would expect. She was a sweet kitty. It’s very sad. It’s worse that the kids understand it so well now that they are older.

I told my girl it was bad. She knew. I told her in the evening that I was going to take her back and she had to say her goodbyes. Even though she understood, she still didn’t want to get it. So we had to do it several times. It probably could have been done better. Maybe while they were sleeping like we did a few years ago. They didn’t understand as much back then.

It’s a good lesson about the circle of life. It’s important to be nice to people, to be kind, and celebrate life because it’s short and ends quickly.

It’s just sad all around. I think my girl cried herself to sleep. Once my boy figured out what exactly was happening, he shed a few tears too. He was more analytical. He wanted to know how it happened, how she went to sleep, where she went…

Bye Callie. I hope you are playing with Talis, Crash, and Turbo and having a grand old time over the rainbow bridge.