This is my first attempt at a diary and it comes at a time of great sadness. I am a huge animal lover and all of my dogs and cats are rescues.
My grandmother passed away almost 4 years ago. At the time of her passing she had four cats and a toy poodle. Friskie was the oldest feline and came to live with me. I still don't know how old Friskie was, but my guess is at least 15.
My grandmother wanted all of her cats euthanized upon her death because she believed no one could care for them as well as she did. The irony here is that all of her cats hid whenever we came to visit, except for Friskie and Pretty Boy. Typically Pretty Boy was wherever the people were, and Friskie eventually came out of her hiding place to say hello to me. She was a beautiful tortoise shell calico with large green eyes who loved to talk. My grandmother used to talk back to her, which probably didn't help keep Friskie quiet. And she just wanted to be petted or held. But if there was too much commotion, she would run and hide wherever it was she hid.
When she first came to live with me I had two other cats, and my male orange tabby Beau eventually fell in love with her. But as in typical female feline style, she was just as ready to swat him as to return his affection.
Friskie has lived with me and my menagerie for about three years. She must have been part Siamese because she had this voice like no other cat I've ever had. In the morning particularly, she would follow me everywhere meowing loudly. I'd give her food and she'd still meow. I think she must have had conversations with my grandmother and was trying to do the same with me. If I sat here at my laptop she'd climb all over me and the keyboard purring and meowing wanted me to pay attention to her. She was very vocal and difficult to ignore. If she slept with me, she would curl up behind my knees and if I moved, she would growl at me and sometimes grab my feet with her claws. When she did that I kicked her out of my room.
When guests would come over to visit, Friskie came out to say hello. She had become the friendliest cat with absolutely no fear of strangers. Over time she no longer hid. I believe she loved her life with us.
As I said in the intro, I'm a huge animal lover and have rescued many. We also have three dogs, and Friskie had this skill to keep them away with an attitude of no fear and by rubbing into them instead of running away. My youngest dog Sophie loved to chase Friskie and did her best to scare her. Sophie would follow her all over the house, hoping to get her to run so the chase would be on, but Friskie had her skills and more often than not outsmarted Miss Sophie. Often I would find them lying near each other, not cuddling of course, but in close enough proximity that they tolerated one another. Eventually I learned that Friskie's yowling and growling was mostly her making noise rather than Sophie actually doing anything to her.
Last month I brought another cat into the house and Friskie began hiding. She did not like our new addition, or at least I thought that was what was happening. Then she urinated on a rug in the kitchen (which had never happened before), then again on my bed. I believed she was fearful of the new cat and wouldn't pass him to get to the litter box. So I added more litter boxes throughout the house, which seemed to do the trick. But she still was hiding. And it turned out she had stopped eating.
Last week she started coughing which which eventually turned into a dry wretch, and she lost the sound in her meow. I found her hidden in the closet and noticed how much weight she had lost, so I took her to the vet. Of course they wanted to run a battery of tests on her, but recognizing she was old I decided if it wasn't treatable with antibiotics I was not going to put her through a bunch of tests and treatment to prolong her already long life. So she received an injection of antibiotics and we came home. The vet instructed me to check in and let her know if the antibiotics were working.
She hadn't eaten since, but would drink water. She stopped coming to say hello in the morning and stayed hidden under the bed. Finally on Friday she came out and said hello, albeit voiceless, as was her usual practice. I thought by chance she was getting better, but that was the last time. On Sunday she rested on the bed in the guest room with Beau at her side who gave her kisses and kept her company. My guess is he knew she was leaving us and tried his best to keep her comfortable in his feline sort of way. She surely didn't seem to mind. I kept checking in on them both all hours and frankly haven't had much sleep. I also noticed she had become congested and had difficulty breathing through her nose, and when she sneezed it was bloody. [Sorry if this is too much information.]
In my 49 years on this planet I have never had to make the decision to euthanize any of my pets. Yesterday I realized Friskie was going to be my first and I dread ever having to make that choice again. But I knew in my heart I could not bear having her suffer any more, nor did she deserve to do so. So this morning I took her back to the vet and as I finish this diary my sweet girl is gone.
Rest in peace old girl. You added so much to our household by just being you and I will remember you fondly forever. I hope you find Grams in the afterworld. She will be so happy to see you and talk with you!