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 My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace

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riceme

riceme


Posts : 3098
Join date : 2012-12-02
Age : 52
Location : Fox, Alaska

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyTue Dec 04, 2012 7:09 pm

Well it took me a while to be able to post this here, but the first thing I did when I joined this forum was to come to the Our Pets forum to read about all you all's pets. Z, I am so sorry to hear about Blackie's passing and how sick she was in the months before you all lost her.

Just before Independence Day this year (several days after I "Returned to Sender" the abusive jerk of an ex-boyfriend whom I'd brought out here w/me from Kansas, which yes, is relevant to this story) we had a terrible heat wave. Only the super-rich have AC in their homes here, as it is not generally ever necessary, so of course I do not. Usually because of how the house is built and because up in The Crow's Nest (the little loft that's the bedroom) there are six long, tall windows that let all the heat out, the heat is not an issue once a person has learned how to manage the fans, doors and windows and the like. On this and the preceding days however, it was just intolerable. I'd been sleeping downstairs because it was so damned hot upstairs and hadn't even gone up there for several days, so I had not noticed that the hateful, abusive, lousy excuse for an ex-boyfriend had shut all six of those windows, trapping all the sweltering heat into the house. In fact, I did not notice until a week after poor Kitty had been killed.

I always had a very strict rule for Miss Kitty to ALWAYS be back in the house and the doors (at least the screen and storm doors) shut at LEAST an hour before dusk so that if I couldn't find her (which was precisely never before this night) I would have time to locate her and get her into the house before the predators became 99% more active than they are during daylight hours. On THIS night before dusk, I went to the front door and she was lying on the front stoop where she could nearly always be found at that hour. It was SO desperately hot in the house... about 100-degrees as I recall telling Az, hotter than it was outside (which now makes perfect sense to me), and after careful consideration for Kitty's health (as a feline's body temperature is much higher than a human's, so if I was suffering in the house, I could not imagine how she felt) and selfishly, my own comfort and peace of mind, I decided that after 16-years that I could take a chance JUST THIS ONCE to let her stay outside and leave the doors open for circulation throughout the house.

About 30-minutes after dark I went to check on her and immediately I felt sick and my heart dropped to below sea level. Not only was she not in her normal spot on the front stoop, but the front door mat was gone. I immediately grabbed my SureFire flashlight, her (fake) Tupperware food container, and put on a pair of Levis and tall boots (so as not to get Foxtails) and went out the front door. First thing I saw was the doormat several feet from where it should have been. She had obviously "peeled out" on it, sending it flying off into the bushes. My heart was in my stomach and I really knew at that moment that she was gone but I was desperate, frantic and determined to find her. I began shaking her food container and calling for her, which NEVER failed to bring her to me in less than 10-seconds flat. She did not come. My heart was filled with doom.

I swept the SureFire light under my pickup and around the top of the property and did not see her. I then ran down to the lower part of the house, swept under "The Yacht" as I call it (a joke, not appropriate for this story), and around the North side of the property. Nothing. Then I swept the light down on the West, downhill side of the property and saw four deer, swept the light up a bit toward the South and that was when I saw her... dead, clenched in the jaws of my resident bobcat. Instinctively, I yelled out for her and ran toward the bobcat, scaring it off into the brush, boulders and trees, taking my sweet Kitty with it.

I looked for her until about 0300 the next morning, at first refusing to accept that she was dead... or, maybe I was in shock, I don't know because I was calling for her and shaking her food container for hours. Finally it really hit me that she was dead and I went back to the house to put her food container back where it belonged, and I resumed my search for her with my SureFire in my teeth (w/electrical tape wrapped around the end of it so I don't chip my teeth) so I could crawl around on my hands and knees in the sage, scrub brush, under the trees, under the boulders... everywhere I could think of that would be a good hide for a bobcat. Normally, I very highly respect private property, but on that night I simply did not care. I have no idea onto how many different people's private property I trespassed. The next morning I resumed my search in the daylight. I never found her remains.

Kitty was a truly remarkable hunter, the sweetest and kindest kitty, best snuggler and feline lover of humans, she never met anyone she didn't immediately befriend and whose lap she did not immediately make a home, and for 16-years she was my best friend and I never slept a night without her. I miss her more than is imaginable.

For about a week after the bobcat killed her I was intent on killing that cat. As I'd mentioned, it is my "resident" bobcat... it's on my property all the time and s/he'd killed my best friend and broken my heart into millions of pieces. After I'd cooled off I realized that I had very consciously made the decision to allow Kitty to go outside and live a happy life... the one that she WANTED, as a hunter. If she was ever kept indoors, she cried at the doors and in the windowsills, and pawed at me begging to be let out. I did not have it in me to force her to live a life that she did not want. I wanted her to live a happy, full life... and she did until the moment she died. And in retrospect, I am also SO very grateful that her last days, months, &c were not spent in pain and that I was not forced into the decision to have to put her down in the end, that she died quickly and relatively painlessly. While no doubt, she was terrified and obviously ran for her life, I maintain that was a better end than a long painful illness and the guilt I would have endured in being forced to put her down. If I had it all to do over again, the only thing I would change would be to have checked those damned six tall windows upstairs after I kicked out that shithead ex-boyfriend of mine. I very badly wanted to blame him for her being killed, but that is no way to live. She lived a very long, healthy and happy life, and was (yes, arguably, I know!) the most loved Kitty to ever walk this earth. Plus, given that I made the conscious decision to let her be the outdoor kitty and hunter that she wanted to be, I did everything reasonably in my power to protect her. I cannot feel badly about that, and again, had I to do it all over again, I'd do it the same way. Minus the shitass, abusive ex-boyfriend... of course.

I posted some funny hunting stories about her @PDF:

PDF: Dog Shaming, p. 2, Post No. 22
http://pensacoladiscussion.forumotion.com/t4295p15-dog-shaming

My Pretty Kitty. Rest in peace, my little love:

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace MyPrettyKitty

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Eric

Eric


Posts : 9738
Join date : 2012-07-30
Age : 73
Location : Pensacola

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 9:53 am

Nice story (and a good picture Riceme). Sad, but natural... the hunter is hunted.

Our last kitty lived 18 years.

I would like to have another kitty, but I think Bud and Ellis (the puppies) would kill it.
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Eric

Eric


Posts : 9738
Join date : 2012-07-30
Age : 73
Location : Pensacola

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 10:04 am

Here was our kitty. When nick was very young, he took scissors and cut off the kitty's whiskers. Thankfully, they grew back.

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Th_0a540ef2a58f62713684cb404abeb9ec_zps141d0436

Posting from an iPad is tenuous. Here's a larger pic. She wasn't happy about having a camera jammed in her face.

https://2img.net/h/i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh496/Liquorish1/0a540ef2a58f62713684cb404abeb9ec_zps141d0436.jpg
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riceme

riceme


Posts : 3098
Join date : 2012-12-02
Age : 52
Location : Fox, Alaska

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 5:25 pm

Eric wrote:
Nice story (and a good picture Riceme). Sad, but natural... the hunter is hunted.

Our last kitty lived 18 years.

I would like to have another kitty, but I think Bud and Ellis (the puppies) would kill it.

Thank you, Eric. My exact words when I called my dad to tell him I'd decided not to kill the bobcat were, "She was a part of the food chain..." and it was a very painful experience, but you are so very right, her death was natural and the hunter was hunted.

Kitty would infamously do the very cutest, most adorable and funny things until the moment that I got my camera out to take pictures of her. Then she would stop whatever incredibly adorable thing she was doing and just sit there, turn her head and ignore me. As a result, I have very few pictures of her. The one above is from my old place in Kansas.

What a beautiful kitty, Eric! Absolutely gorgeous. You all have at least one pit bull, don't you? Sometimes dogs can surprise you with their acceptance of a new kitty. But it is a gamble. Has to be the right kitty, right dogs. How old are the pups?
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Eric

Eric


Posts : 9738
Join date : 2012-07-30
Age : 73
Location : Pensacola

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PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 7:34 pm

Bud is 4-5 and Ellis is about 3. Bud has some bull in him, but he is not a pit bull. He has cherry eyes, but there is no guarantee that surgery on them will be successful. (They don't seem to bother him, so we leave them alone.)

He likes to lay in the bed with his face sticking out. Here he is this morning.

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Bud-un10
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riceme

riceme


Posts : 3098
Join date : 2012-12-02
Age : 52
Location : Fox, Alaska

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 7:49 pm

Aww, that is just ADORABLE and reminds me of Kitty. To hell with sticking her head out to breathe! Her favorite snuggle spot in cold weather was under the covers either on my belly, on my chest or snuggled at my side under my armpit. Several of my (now) ex-boyfriends over the past 16+ years have wanted me to give Miss Kitty the boot from the bed. Not gonna happen. Boyfriends (and their love) unfortunately come and go. Kitty's love was a constant and unconditional.

In warm weather her favorites were same as above (noting that I was not so fond of her being on my chest because she'd often creep up so that she could feel my breath on her face, getting cat hair in my mouth), at my feet if it was real hot, or (drumroll please) ON MY FACE/HEAD. That was a problem, and was something that always woke me up. As many times as I removed her and told her "No, Kitty!" she'd always try it again. lol.

Silly Kitty. She was funny.

Eric, I am not sure what it means for a dog to have "cherry eyes." Can you please essplain that to me? That doggy is just too darned cute for words. Looks like a lover... who'd double as a fine watch dog.
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Eric

Eric


Posts : 9738
Join date : 2012-07-30
Age : 73
Location : Pensacola

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 8:34 pm

Do you see the reddish membrane on the inside of his eye? Is sticks out quite a bit. His left eye started doing it about a year or two ago. His right eye has had a cherry for at least three years.

If I was on the laptop, I could post a pic where it was more easily seen. I'll try to post a better pic in the morning.
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Eric

Eric


Posts : 9738
Join date : 2012-07-30
Age : 73
Location : Pensacola

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 8:44 pm

Bud looks so happy right now...

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace C257c41b2058380a36d31cc0193ccfdd_zps756bd7dd
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riceme

riceme


Posts : 3098
Join date : 2012-12-02
Age : 52
Location : Fox, Alaska

My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty
PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace EmptyWed Dec 05, 2012 10:24 pm

Poor Buddy! I hope it turns out that the cherry is a non-issue. I wonder if it's painful at all.

What a sweet little cutie. Bet he loves rubs and pats on his belly.

That was one of the adorable things Kitty used to do that I could never catch a picture of.

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PostSubject: Re: My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace   My Sweet Miss Kitty -- My Best Friend Ever -- May She be Resting at Peace Empty

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