My Tink went to the Bridge today.  I can't believe she's gone.  She went
so fast, no warning.  She didn't eat Saturday morning but that's not
unusual (they have crocks of dry food in their room but I feed them
kibble with warm water when I let them out to play)  If she ate in her
room, then she wouldn't be hungry when she came out to play.  Even though
she didn't eat she was still acting normal.  When I let them out last
night, she was having hind end weakness.  She was drinking and I force
fed some duck soup.  She has had a cyclic problem for the past three
years so I thought this was just another one.  After a day or so of
feeding she always pulls through.  Nobody could ever figure out what
was wrong.
 
But Sunday morning I found her behind the door in their room unable to
move.  It looked like she had vomited a little and had pee'd on herself.
I tried water and duck soup but her jaws were locked shut.  I grabbed a
heatpack, wrapped her in baby blankets, stuck her in the carrier, and off
to the emergency vet we went.  She didn't even blink when they took her
temp.  I knew then it was worse than I thought.
 
They started fluids, dextrose and antibiotics; Put her in an incubator
with a heat disc.  Three hours later there was no change except in body
temp.  At 2:30 the vet called to say she'd had a small seizure, then
respiratory distress, then stopped breathing.  Necropsy shows nothing.
 
It's harder to accept when there's nothing obviously wrong.  Then you
start to second guess yourself.  I just can't believe she's gone - my
little problem child.  She's the one that figured out how to get on the
counters and push everything off.  How to get on top of the dresser and
push off all the glass things without breaking them.  How to open a
zipped gym bag, pry off the childproof cap from ibuprofin, eat many and
still live.  How to get stepped on, shoot nasty things from both ends and
not even get bruised.
 
She used to sleep in our sleeves as a baby but now her favorite place was
my SO's sock drawer until I'd find her and put her in their room.  She's
always been my little shadow.  Everywhere I'd go, she'd go.  She'd lay
between my feet when I was in the kitchen and then help herself to my
plate later.  My little vegetarian girl who somehow liked spicey
sausages.  She'd have a tough choice between watermelon, grapes, or the
sausage.  When we had Chinese she would pick up a carrot, drop it, pick
up a mushroom, drop it, pick up a pea pod, drop it... On an on it went.
 
My little Miss Miss, I miss you so much!  I miss the way you smell, the
way you walk.  You were only 4, why did you have to go so soon?  Remember
what I told you at the vet; I'll see you again one day.
 
Goodbye Tink - Mama loves you.
Darlene
[Posted in FML issue 4236]