Stripes, 1995? - 2010

We had to put our dear kitty, Stripes, to sleep last Wednesday, September 18.

She fell down around 9:15 pm, and could not get up again. Both hind legs seemed paralyzed. She was panting and crying, and could not hold up her head. Whatever happened must have been very painful and frightening. I carried her downstairs and felt as if she wanted to use her litterbox, which she did. But then she fell down again. All we could think of to do was rush her to the local animal emergency medical care facility.

There, they could not give us hopeful news. They gave Stripes a massive dose of pain killers in order to examine her. They said the blood glucose in her hind legs was around 100, and double that in the front legs, which seemed to indicate lack of blood flow to the hind legs. They thought that meant a blood clot had lodged in her aorta and cut off blood to the second hind leg. Her heartbeat was also irregular. They thought it was a stroke or a heart attack.

We felt that Stripes's time had come. We wanted her to be jealed and whole, but did not want the cure to be more painful than the illness. We felt the time had come to release her from this life without Maris.

We told her over and over how much we loved her, and how grateful we were that she had come to live with us. We thanked her for all the love she gave to Maris over the years. We called on Bast and Great Mystery to look after her in the Spirit World.

We were with her to the very end. I feel sure Maris was there to meet Stripes on The Other Side.

We carried her home and buried her under the cherry tree in our back yard, with other members of our animal family.

We will always love you, Stripes. You are the best, most beautiful cat who ever lived.