Simba

We had to euthanize our cat Simba yesterday. He lost use of his back legs, and began to lose control of his bodily functions. My daughter thought we could still nurse him along, so put his litter box and food in her room, and kept him in there so he wouldn't have to go far. He would drag himself by his front legs. It's odd that animals don't seem to be as upset by disabilities, they just kind of act like, "Oh, my back legs don't work..okay, I'll just use the front." For example, he had all of the comforts in her room, but he chose to drag himself to my son's room to sleep under their bed during the day. Then he would drag himself back to her room for food and water. My daughter told me that the last night we had him, in the middle of the night he pulled himself up on the bed next to her (remember he only uses his front legs) and slept next to her. I read once that white cats bond with one person, and in Simba's case, that is true. He bonded with my daughter.

Even though he didn't allow anyone else to bond with him the same way, it was still hard to see him go. My husband took him to the vet. The vet said, "There are three things that cause this condition. The first is a heart attack or stroke that caused a blood clot to form. The second is cancer, and the third is a broken back. We couldn't have done anything for any of those things. You did a valiant thing in keeping him alive as long as you could, but frankly, we would have euthanized at the start." That made me feel a little better about having to do it, I didn't want him to suffer, and he was to the point that we couldn't take care of him properly.

I think that by nature I am a "Cat lady". I love to have a cat in my house. I was remembering last night that when we got Simba, after having not had a cat for many years, I said to my neighbor, "I think that I will always want to have a cat the rest of my life.". Well, now I am cat-less. What's odd is that several months ago I had this sort of intuition that Simba wasn't going to last long, and that I should get another cat then to have in place when he passed. He wasn't sick at the time, but I just had this feeling. My husband talked me out of it then. I think when we get back from vacation I am going to start looking for another.