Losing a Beloved Pet

Within the past 24 hours, I've heard of a friend whose beloved pet bird died, and one whose beloved cat died. Both of them are grieving deeply. With each story, I look again at my darling buddy, my 17 year old cat, Puff. Seventeen cat years equals about 100 human years.

When my former cat Frankie died, our aged beagle was devastated. I had to get another cat soon to keep the dog from dying of a broken heart. I went two weeks later to the Humane Society to rescue a needy kitten. There were dozens to choose from that day. Rows of cages contained cute, pretty kittens all sleeping or sitting and watching for a new family.

The last cage on the top row housed a little orange-and-white medium-hair kitten who was wide awake. When she saw me, she started jumping and doing somersaults, trying to entice me to play. A little white paw reached out to flag me down. I approached, and she stopped jumping and started purring loudly, rubbing against the bars. I turned to look at the rest of the kittens. "Mew! Mew!" Her petite little meows objected to my leaving. When I turned back, she purred again, and batted at me. I stayed to play, watching her somersaulting antics. If I looked away toward the other dozing kittens, she became outraged. "MEW! MEW!!!" If I looked back at her: “PURRR!!!” It turns out that I am an obedient slave to adorable balls of fluff.

Puff and the dog bonded instantly. Our new little kitten gave a tongue bath to that smelly, fat, old ecstatic dog that night and every night for the rest of the dog’s life.

Puff has been a bundle of love all along. I offer as proof the orange spot on her back that is in the shape of a perfect heart. Whenever we have people over, she takes turns sitting in each person’s lap, purring. If somebody is sick, she sits on their lap, purring until they get better. The few times I’ve had a devastating case of the flu, she stays with me on the couch for the week or two until I’m well. One time Gary and I had a fight and I felt terrible. She lay on my chest all night, one paw on each side of my face, purring into my heart. That’s the only time she’s slept on me at night.

Her taste in people and hobbies is impeccable. After nursing me through my divorce with plenty of walks together and lots of purring, she accompanied me to Colorado. Eventually I met Gary Immediately she fell in love with him and became Gary’s cat. I call her his other wife. When we married, I got a piano, and Puff took up playing. In the middle of the night, she’d jump up on the keyboard and start walking around. She still does that when things become too boring for her. If I start playing, she will also hop up and share in the music. She loves to sniff flowers too.

These days she is too arthritic to accompany us on walks. Instead, on nice summer evenings Gary and I pack up the dog and cat and drive to the ice cream shop. Puff and Gypsy share a little dish of vanilla ice cream. We all sit in the back of the car with the hatch up, enjoying our peaceful treat time together.

It’s heartbreaking to see her looking so skeletal and ragged. She’s deaf now, always in pain, and gets confused a lot. But she's still purring! It can be harder in some ways to lose a beloved pet, an inter-species friendship, than to lose a person. Animals see the best in you, and love unconditionally. People relationships take work. Pet relationships are a sharing of love and contentment. Losing an animal is losing a being of purity and innocence, one who gave only joy in their life. Something hurts terribly when we lose a person, but something different hurts terribly when we lose an animal friend. I am trying to prepare myself, but I don’t look forward to losing Puff.
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