Last Saturday, December 13, 2003 at about 9:30AM EST, my friend, Oliver the cat, left this world. I am devistated by this loss.
The tears have been flowing steadily since I made the decision that ended the suffering that Oliver was experiencing due to the complete failure of his kidneys.
I wish that I had had more time with him before his body failed him. I was not ready for this quick end of his life. I had assumed that he would again bounce back and I would only need to increase his fluids injections to once a day from once every other day. Sadly, I was wrong.
When he stopped eating on Thursday morning and I took him in to the vet school, his blood chemistry was a shambles. The student remarked that she had never seen a cat who would still eat at all with those values. His red blood cell count was 15. His creatinine and BUN were sky high.
It is amazing he was even able to get up and walk around let alone eat anything and keep it down. What a trooper Oliver was.
Now I have only a huge hole in my soul, countless tears that have fallen, and the dull ache in the pit of my stomach each time I realize that I have seen the last of my good friend.