Said Goodbye to My Buddy

I know there are a lot of folks out there that aren't "pet people" or "cat people" and growing up, I wouldn't really say that I was a "pet person" but I did have a love for cats. I've had two cats in my life, one of which I said goodbye too a LONG time ago, and one that I just had to say goodbye to on Tuesday.

This was my Arby. He was with me for seventeen and a half years. Yup. This guy had WAY more than nine lives.

We got Arby the summer before I went into high school, in 1994. Yikes. He was the runt of a litter that one of my friends found in the woods behind her house. He was my buddy from the minute we brought him home.

Arby was with my through my high school sports tryouts. He was with me through my first homecoming dance. He was with me for my first kiss. He was with me through my senior prom. He was with me through my first heart break. He was with me every weekend when I came home from college. He was with me when I moved 1500 miles away from home alone for my first full time job. (Poor guy was never the same after THAT plane ride). Arby was with me when I met Wes. Arby was with me when we moved 3000 miles away. Arby was with me when we had our first baby. Arby was with me when we had our second baby. Arby was with me through Postpartum Depression. He was my buddy.

Arby had developed renal failure over the past year or so which was progressively getting worse. But he was a trooper. Over the past couple of weeks, he had gotten sicker and fell down our basement steps. When I say that he had way more than nine lives, I mean it. After laying still for a few minutes after falling. He got up, limped around for a minute, then went on about his business. I couldn't bare to see him like this though, and we had been putting this day off for a long time but it was finally here. After many trips to the vet over the past couple of months, lots of tests, we decided to let Arby rest.

Some people probably think that its crazy to be upset over loosing an animal. But my buddy was with me for seventeen and a half years. It was one of the hardest things that I have had to do.

After a very miserable few days, I am starting to feel better knowing that he is comfortable and happy in "kitty heaven", which is what we tell Emma. She is still too young to understand about Arby, but here is a little snapshot of how that conversation went.

Emma: "Mommy, are you sad?"

Mommy: "Yes baby, Mommy is sad. Mommy misses kitty."

Emma: "Umm, where kitty go Mommy?"

Mommy: "Arby went to kitty heaven baby."

Emma: "Ummm, where is kitty heaven?"

Mommy: "It's up in the sky, where God lives. Right next to fishy heaven." (She just had two goldfish that died and went to fishy heaven)

Emma: "Umm, kitty take an airplane to go to kitty heaven?"

Mommy: "Umm...no baby, kitty didn't take an airplane."

Emma: "Umm...kitty's in the sky?"

::: Emma looks up in the sky to look for kitty :::

Mommy: "Yup, but he is so high up in the sky, that we can't see him."

Emma: "Mommy? I'm sad."

Mommy: "I know honey. Me too. It's okay to be sad sometimes when we lose something that we love."

::: Emma gives Mommy an unprompted hug and slobbery kiss :::

Emma: "Mommy? You happy now?"

Mommy: "Yes baby. I'm happy now."

Emma then woke up from her nap the other day crying. When asked why she was crying, she said that she was sad, because Mommy was sad.