In Memoriam: Mr. Frodo

Mondy afternoon, we had to say goodbye to Mr.Frodo.

Friday evening, we noticed he was sick. He'd probably been sick before that, but we hadn't noticed. And when a cat yakks, well, it's not that unusual. But we noticed he was genuinely sick on Saturday and tried to give him fluids via an eyedropper. Did it again Sunday. And again Monday morning. But by the time I got home about 2 or so that afternoon, he was already going into shock and was severely dehydrated. I got him to the Vet pretty quickly after that.

He was so dehydrated that he was going to have to do IV fluids and antibiotics just to give him a chance. And that was $500 right there. Just to be able to take him home that night. Just to return him in the morning. I wonder if maybe we shouldn't have done it. But I did ask them to do the blood tests, and they didn't indicate anything conclusive. Signs of early organ failure, possible infection, or it could all just be because of the dehydration and nothing was shown.

So we had to decide what to do, and we decided that it wasn't right to continue his suffering. He was just too far gone for us to be able to help him, and it wouldn't be right to prolong things. My mom came down to keep me company until Amanda was able to get there.

It was just so sudden. With PJ, we knew it was coming for at least a couple of weeks. I had a chance to prepare myself just a little bit. This time, it was just sudden. We stayed there in the room, and I held him close one last time (like he ever let me do it while he was alive) while they gave him that final shot.

He was only about 3 1/2 years old. He was a rescued stray and even though Amanda picked him out, he was my cat as much as he could be called anyone's cat. He loved to play, he loved food, he hated being picked up, he was skittish around pretty much everyone, he loved to snuggle in the bed during the winter, he was stronger than any other cat I've met, he was just too young to go. He got his name (and was chosen) because Amanda had a dream about our other cat, Mysi, carrying around a black and white kitten and it was named Mr. Frodo.

Here's to hoping that my Mr. Frodo was able to sail on the white ships across the ocean too...