Best of Cats

We only got 5 of Bu-Bu's 10 years, but they were worth it for all of us.

When we got her, some immuno-deficiency problem had left her with a terrible itch and she’d groomed all the fur off her stomach to the point of causing lesions. Many trips to the ASPCA vet service in NYC had her periodically dosed with steroids, but that never held her long. Still, she wasn’t an unhappy cat, just itchy. Then we “transported” her to Australia, and she had to spend a month in jail without the vet support, and even then she wasn’t unhappy, just itchy and bewildered. Once we got her home, she adapted immediately and we were lucky enough to find a vet who could offer better on-going treatment. In no time at all she had a full coat and was sookier than ever, not to mention maybe a bit fatter, but for a cat on permanent house arrest, as it were (we’re in an apartment, and her previous owners had had her front claws removed, a horrible procedure that is, thankfully, illegal here), that’s pretty much inevitable. Bu-Bu was almost more dog than cat in the way she’d come when she was called, roll over, rush to greet us when we’d been out, and bring her toys to us for a game. She’d spend time grooming us, just to show she cared (she liked nothing better than to sit on the back of the couch over my head and lick my hair). Still, the itch continued, and with the periodic ingestion of prednisone and her congenital heart murmur, she was always compromised in her general health, so we always knew the day would come, sooner for her than perhaps for another cat. In retrospect, I suppose we’d been getting warnings for weeks. She wasn’t always eating well. She was having more trouble keeping herself clean. She was getting breathless. She would sit off away from us and just look uncomfortable. Things like that. Blood and urine tests showed no abnormalities, and even when her breathing seemed heavier than it ought, the vet couldn’t hear anything untoward. Until last night, when it was clear that her lungs were no longer able to get her enough air. We won’t know exactly what finally did for her, but whatever it was, it was very bad, causing her lungs to bleed and slowly choking her. We might have rushed off to the after-hours animal emergency centre and spent thousands on tests and an oxygen tent and left her overnight and into the hands of veterinary surgeons, but that would have just been cruel. She was suffering and we had to help her, so we did, and we’ll miss her terribly.