1:15 p.m. - 2003-02-19
Goodbye to a dear friend
I have to warn you all that the following entry is a bit sad, especially for people who personally know us. If you are reading this at work you might want to brace yourself. I'm sorry.
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My dear buddy Tylenol passed away this morning. The cat who slept with me every night like a Teddy bear is gone.
He was fine when I woke up this morning. He was under the covers with his head poking out, and I was holding him the way I always do. He gave me the big Siamese good morning yowl, and we played "mousey" for awhile. When I went downstairs at 9:30 he was washing his feet.
I checked my email, ate breakfast. When I went back upstairs at 11, he was gone.
He was lying on the bathroom floor. There was a little vomit, but it looked like he had just lain down. I knew immediately he was dead. I checked his pulse anyway, got a hand mirror and checked for breath, and then got my stethescope. No heartbeat. He was gone.
I just sat for a few minutes and stared into space. It's just what I do when I feel terrible.
After a short time I called Bruce. "I'll come home right now." he said.
I called our vet to ask about cremations. There was a little silence when I told them that Ty had gone. They knew him well. The secretary, Marybeth, gently told me we would have to take him to another vet who did cremations, asked me if I wanted them to make the arrangements. "I'm so so sorry." she said at the end, and I could tell she was starting to cry.
I called the other vet and made arrangements, and by that time Bruce had come home. He had tears streaming down his face, and sat on the edge of the bathtub. I sat on the floor next to Ty and we held hands and talked about how he was the only cat we knew who routinely did somersaults, how he used to sleep in the sink, how he used to walk around the house yowling, what amazing blue eyes he had. How for 17 years he had been our kid, our best friend, how we knew he was old but we had been hoping to have just another year, a couple more months, a few more days.
And then I clipped off a few of his whiskers, and some fur from under his stomach where it was curly. We wrapped him in some blue velvet, and Bruce drove to the vet while I held him on my lap.
They were very sweet, at the animal crematorium. They showed us the box his ashes would be in, and when the technician took his body away he held it tight and said,"Come on Ty", like he was trying to reassure it.
His ashes will be ready in an hour. They'll be on my altar for awhile until we decide what to do. I'll have some of his pictures blown up and framed. And there'll be cornflowers and dayflowers in the garden this summer, to remind me of his crazy blue eyes.
Goodbye, dear friend.
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