Our family spent Christmas together for the first time in some five years and it was wonderful. Our Korean daughter-in-law had her first experience of a Chamberlain Christmas happening. We bought an enormous turkey which took up the entire tiny oven, missed my large family size oven in Cape Town but we managed just fine. A blessed family time together with lots of sharing, fun and laughter and of course too much food to eat!
I have discovered over the years that there are people who just love dogs and others who adore cats. I fall into the second category and our four foundling kitties are a constant source of joy to me, hence the crazy decision to spend six months in France so that they would not have to spend time in quarantine. Their amazing ability to fly half way around the world in two small boxes surrounded by strangers and then settle into two new homes has been a test of their resilience. Sadly the health of our old kittie Sasha deteriorated quite dramatically over the holidays and we had to take him to the veterinary hospital on Sunday. He was extremely dehydrated and has spent the past few days on a drip with kidney failure. Several blood tests have shown a very slight improvement. However he is not eating and we will only know by Thursday whether he will recover. Apparently it is a cat's natural instinct to hide their ailments and we had planned a vet's visit this week as we were concerned that he was so thin 'tho still eating well. Sasha is the eldest of our four kitties at fourteen. He was found in a storm water drain as a tiny kitten when Austin was at Cape Town University and has been a special part of our family every since. His favourite place to sleep was on top of a cupboard under the window in our workroom in Cape Town and he has taken to sleeping on the window sill in our latest workroom here in Bury. We possibly will have to make a difficult but perhaps necessary decision later this week.
Wishing you all a special New Year celebration and exciting 2010.
I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through. ~Jules Verne
3 comments:
My prayers will be with you as you make your decisions for your beloved cat. As pet owners, one of the most difficult decisions we have to make is to let them go to avoid suffering - our final gift to them in gratitude for all the unconditional love and joy they gave us. I know you'll do the right thing at the right time.
Comforting hugs sent you way.
xoxo
Donna
So Sorry to hear about Sasha. My kitty MaGraw has kidney failure as well he is just 6 yrs old. I discovered it just over a year ago and have managed to keep him going with medicine and hydrating him. He is getting awfully frail now, though he is eating. You and I will both know the right time to let them go, and who knows perhaps they'll meet up at some point beyond and play together :) Hugs
Ah kitties... they can be so aloof... and yet they never want us to know they're hurting. :(
I'm sorry to hear your Sasha isn't well. You will have tough decisions to make... but they'll be the right ones. You know what is best.
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