Goodbye to a friend
RIP Tigger 1991 to 2007
I adopted Tigger from the Genesee County Animal Control Shelter in 1991 after looking for one of my cats, Zen, who had gotten through a screen window the week before. He was the least shy and most outgoing of the litter that was there, and my son Mark liked him.
A couple of months later, Mark had grabbed hold of Tigger’s tail and literally flipped Mark backwards as Tigger jumped off my lap to get away from Mark! Mark ended up laying flat on his back with a very shocked look. He wasn’t hurt and I don’t remember him crying, but he never grabbed Tigger by the tail again.
Tigger quickly became my cat, even though I thought he would become Mark’s cat. Tigger took to following me around, sitting on me whenever I sat down and eventually sleeping on me at night. When I’d go to bed, I always slept on my side and Tigger would lay along my side on top of me with his head on my shoulder. Sometimes when I woke at night, he’d still be on me or laying next to me. But wherever I went, he was always there!
Fast forward to this winter. In December, Tigger started losing weight and would throw up after drinking water. It turned out he was constipated and thus not eating. So an enema and some injected fluids from the vet set him mostly right for a couple of months.
Last week he started slowing down again and Sunday was the last time he ate. He was sleeping all the time and wobbly on his feet, so I made another appointment with the vet for today since I didn’t have to work.
Tigger was in kidney failure and while he wasn’t suffering, he wasn’t going to get better.
So I made the choice to have him euthanized to avoid him suffering. It was very hard to say goodbye, and even harder to be there when they injected him, but I wanted him to know I was there and I loved him to the end…
Bye Tigger. You were a great cat and companion! Rest in Peace.
