Mad Times

I posted a batch of photos today that includes a bunch of different kitties, so hie thee to my Kitties set on Flickr for all the feline goodness.

This was just a random box we got in the mail. But there’s a box with Theo’s name on it waiting for Christmas morning. I expect the box will be his favorite part of whatever’s inside.

Charles Mingus (yes, that Charles Mingus) tells you how. Hmm… (via Making Light)

Original appearance here.

Previous appearences on icanhascheezburger.com: subway service, facebook, internets.

I’ve dreaded having to write this post for a long time, but we said goodbye to our dear Alice on Friday afternoon.

It’s been about a year and a half since her initial hospitalization and diagnosis with feline chronic renal failure (kidney failure). She responded wonderfully to treatment and we’re thankful for the second chance we got with her. She’d been doing great until earlier this summer when she declined a bit, and then in the last couple of weeks, things just got worse. Nothing painful or horrible, she just got weaker and we had to nag her to eat anything because she just didn’t feel good. Then late this week she started having trouble breathing, and with her other issues, none of the potential answers were good and the tests to find out weren’t going to be a lot of fun for her either. It’s the closest thing we could have hoped for to being able to see the future and know that it was time.

On the plus side, she was still affectionate and tolerant even after the last few weeks when we were always putting unwanted food and water under her nose or tossing pills down her throat or sticking her with needles. She seemed to really enjoy our drumming session on Monday, coming out to visit with everyone and be in the middle of things. On Thursday our friend did Reiki on her which meant she had her hands on Alice for 45 minutes then Alice went off for a minute or two and came back for another 15 minutes. For anyone who knows Alice, you know that her allowing that much contact is just unheard of. After that, she was the most relaxed she’d been in weeks. She spent Thursday night sleeping on our bed with us which was unusual for her. Friday morning she spent sprawled in the sunshine.

She had a good life and ended it well. She’s leaving a big hole in all our lives.

Here are some pictures. I’ll keep her in the cat blogging rotation (in our digital library alone I found 925 pictures with Alice in them)

First day home

This was the day we brought her home. She fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake up until her brother had already been exploring their new home for a while.

All grown up

Taken just a few weeks ago. There was a long time where they didn’t get this cuddly, but Alice mellowed out a little over the past few months.

Favorite things

Egg cartons and sunshine.

More faves

Boxes, of course. That red sock contains the remains of a “wooly bully”, a vaguely mouse-shaped ball of felted wool that she tore to tiny bits. It remained her very favorite toy even after the sock treatment. We would hear her making a muffled meowing sound in another part of the house and when we’d check, the sock would be in a new location. We seldom caught her carrying it around, and as soon as she’d see us she’d drop it and act nonchalant. Never managed to get a picture of her with it.

She won’t drink water out of her dish, but has to drink out of our water glasses. Or the water that has flowed through the roots of the wheat grass. Good thing she’s cute.

The kids got lolled again. Actually I think this is Theo’s first time on icanhascheezeburger.

Becky took these two shots back to back. I did the animation. A good illustration of the challenge of feline photography.

That is actually Alice’s water dish. For some reason she prefers to drink from that instead of any of the many cat dishes around the house. And even though she has her own cup she still prefers to drink from one of ours. When you have a CRF kitty you are just happy she’s drinking.