I hate to be a downer, but... our poor kitty Stella Blue passed away tonight. She was such a sweet cat.
She had lost weight, but we had chalked it up to what we have called Fleabola 2014-- the worst flea problem we have ever had. After much effort and expense, the fleas are gone as of about a month ago. All of our cats' appetites came back, and Stella's was the most voracious. We had been giving her and our other female cat extra canned food for the last month, and they were chowing it down. Today, though, Stella would not eat or drink. She was lethargic was having a hard time getting around. We separated her into her own room, checked on her regularly, and planned to get her to the vet in the morning. Unfortunately, she did not make it. She passed away peacefully, and seemingly without pain.
Stella found us back around 2002. She was living under an abandoned house that I passed everyday when I walked to the grocery store. She followed me home and leapt a six foot fence, so I fed her. She did this for a couple of days until my wife and I agreed that if she was there in the morning, we would keep her. She was, and so we did.
Cat people know that cats definitely have personalities. Stella was scrappy, and she was fearless. She would go toe to toe with cats twice her size, and win. She would lure cats into chasing her, and then pull of an impossible leap to an impossible place to escape just in the nick of time. She was our only cat with the instinct to kill, the only cat daring enough to jump in the garbage to steal chicken bones, and the only cat able to escape
twice.
She used to meet me every morning at the bottom landing of the stairs. I would sit down, and she would already be going to town on my shoes. She would greet me with a chirp, and swing around into position. I would pull her back, sliding on the wood floor, until her back paws locked in on the stairs. A few dozen hard pets and she was ready to start her day. I'll miss those moments we shared.
This is Stella, in her prime:
We still have four kitties-- the old married couple, and the young punks. Jerry, who is 16 and has been on thyroid medicine for four years, Sugaree, who is 14 and is definitely showing her age, and Oscar and Stripes, who are about 5 and are best friends and partners in crime.
All you cat lovers, please post some new pictures of your kitties!