When Cat's Break Your Heart....

I got Miss Tai Ming in 1997. Three years after I graduated. I mean, I was still married back then!! I found her in the paper for $60! A small price to pay for 16 years of unconditional love!

She's been a pinnacle of health. Her one and only trip to the vet was to get spayed.

Never a sniffle. Never an infection. Not an itch....Not a bad tooth in her mouth. Easiest cat in the world!

When I returned from vacation the beginning of September, I could tell she was just different.

At first, I thought she was being the normal cat. You know, pissed off at me for leaving for a week, and giving me the cold shoulder. Then an entire day went by and it occurred to me..."I haven't seen Tai today".

Now, she's always been a loner. The other three cats are family, and inseperable, but Tai always made her presence known. She would visit, and she loves to talk, as any respectable siamese mix would!

In just two short weeks, she took a rapid decline, she started hiding more than usual. And since she usually hid most of the time, and I have three other cats...it took me a while to notice she obviously hasn't been eating, she's lost weight! And then I noticed that her coat wasn't so pretty anymore.

I just knew something was very wrong.

A trip to the vet revealed that she also had partial facial paralysis...the left side of her face wasn't responding to touch. Her left eye was blind. And she couldn't blink. She was very dehydrated. Eating was likely difficult for her because of the paralysis.

None of her symptoms pointed to any one thing, and her blood work revealed nothing. Without a CT scan (which I inclined not to do on my 16 year old cat) the vet's best guess was that she had likely suffered a stroke recently.

After IV fluids, and lots of tears, I took Miss Tai home with me. I got her to eat some fancy tuna fish, but not much. It's hard to eat with partial paralysis.

I will only have a few days left with my precious little kitty. Once she decides that even eating delicious tuna is too much for her, I have to let her go.

I have had to make that awful choice for a few of my pets in my lifetime. You always wonder what if...and you never forget how hard it was to do.

But me and Tai had the joy of caring for each other for 16 years! I can't imagine the amount of tears she's soaked up in her fur from all that life has tossed my way, from job losses, to lost loves. She was there with me for the vast majority of my life's events! She knows all my deepest secrets!

She's always been a staple in my life...."My Tai"  I like to call her.....

I am lucky to have had her for so long, and I am going to shower her with extra love over the next few days.

Hug your pets a little tighter tonight.

You just never know when their time is up!