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cat lady

Last Friday we had to put my cat down. I feel like if I vent too much about this in "real" life, I'll come off like a crazy cat lady. Maybe I am. And I mean, what a dumb stereotype... But I digress.

Inky, aka Inkles Badinkles was born in my lap. His mother, Rose, is our family cat. She is sweet but very timid. His dad is my husband's cat, Duke. Duke is awesome and stately and adores my husband. They are both awesome pets. And yes, we know how kittens are made. What we didn't know is that a male cat can still impregnate a female up to 90 days after being fixed. Fun times.

Anyhow, Inky was born in my lap. Rose seemed anxious to give birth to this litter, and she kept trying to give birth on my bed. I finally sat her birthing box between my legs and she gave birth right there, with the girls and I watching. Kittens are cute and all, but we had no intention of keeping any of them. We gave them all names for the sake of telling them apart. If I had known we were actually going to keep Inky, we wouldn't have given him such a dumb name :)

By the time he was 6 weeks old, it was clear he wasn't going anywhere. He seemed to sense when I was in pain (which is often) and come sit with me. He ran to me when I walked in to a room or when he heard me speak. I've had cats and dogs and rabbits and even a snake, but in my 40 years I've never had a pet that loved me like Inky did. And when something so sweet and innocent loves you that much, well, it's hard not to love them back. He became my defacto therapy cat.

He had a ridiculously sweet personality. He had a habit of sprawling in such a way that he looked like he was posing for a painting. We called him our fancy boy. Such a dandy! He loved getting affection, but he also loved giving it. He had such a pleasant disposition. So pleasant, in fact, that we didn't realize he was sick until it was too late.

We had to put him down one week ago. Tomorrow would have been his first birthday. On the one hand, I'm a pretty pragmatic person. And I'm telling myself that it's stupid to shed so many tears over a cat. But damn, that cat was just the sweetest.

That's all. It seems kind of silly on the one hand, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's tough.

11:10 a.m. - 2019-09-20

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