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Tiger -- 1993 - 2011
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Tiger -- 1993 - 2011
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Tiger was almost 18 and a half years old. He was born in 1993 -- probably
in mid-May, around when Jill's and Jeremy's birthdays fall, but they had
established the practice of considering his official birthday to be April
29th, the same as mine.
I originally posted this photograph in my entry for
July 26, 2007
-- the 14th anniversary of the day Tiger joined our family.
In recent years he had increasing problems with arthritis. Although that
slowed him down, it did not end his curiosity or playfulness or loving
nature. Jill had made him stairs to help him get up into his favorite window-watching
chair in my home office. This year I had to replace the steps with a ramp.
Late this summer, because of his increasing difficulties going up and down
stairs, we set things up so that he spent most of his time in our bedroom
(including bringing the ramp and chair up to place in front of a bedroom
window).
Last week he was very sick -- and was diagnosed as being diabetic. I learned
how to give him insulin injections (twice a day) and we thought he was
better -- as, indeed, I posted here on Monday.
Yesterday, however, he seemed to have collapsed on the floor in our room
-- Jill found him sprawled out on the floor when she went to say goodbye
before returning to Ottawa.
Short version -- multiple trips to the vets -- and an almost sleepless
night, Tiger having seizures and then finally seemed to drift off into
sleep... or almost sleep. About four in the morning he was awake and trying
to get out of his bed. I picked him up and got him to drink and then eat.
He couldn't walk, nor even stand. I had to hold him in my arms and then
hold his food dish by his mouth so he could eat. Then we just lay on the
floor and I talked to him and petted him. Finally, about 6:30, I crawled
into bed and slept for an hour. When I woke up I discovered that Tiger
had used his one functioning leg to crawl under our bed (his cat cave --
a safe place to be). Yesterday the vet had asked for me to bring him back
when their office opened, so I brought him there, explained about his night,
and left him there so they could monitor his glucose level during the day.
An hour or so later they called and asked me to come back in. Tiger had
had two seizures -- each of which they had been able to control by adding
Valium to his IV -- but since his glucose levels were fine, this had nothing
to do with his diabetes. They both thought (it's a two vet office) that
he most likely had a brain tumor. Well, to cut to the chase, they also
thought -- given his age and his diabetes -- that the prognosis for successful
intervention was not good, but they would refer us to the appropriate specialists
for an MRI scan, etc.
Well, you all know what the other option was.
He had suffered enough pain and sickness this past week -- and he was reduced
to crawling -- and we just could not make him go through more pain and
suffering and frightening experiences. We loved him too much for that.
I sat and held him in one of the examining rooms for half an hour or so
and talked to him and shared favorite memories with him and told him how
much we all loved him and would always cherish our memories of him -- and
then the vet came in and made an injection into Tiger's IV and in a few
moments he closed his eyes and was gone but he will always be in our hearts
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