Last night, whilst we were sat in front of the fire recovering from the feast we had made to celebrate Chinese New Year, Ebb, our cat, quietly took himself upstairs to die. We found him not long after, in one of his safe places, in our son’s room.
Not wholly unexpected, he was suffering from the same heart problem that took his sister Flo, five years ago. We had hoped that although he had a heart murmur, that he would be spared and get a nice long cat life, but this winter his breathing got worse, sometimes he couldn’t settle, finding lying down too much and he would sit up and drop off like that, or prowl around looking for a place to sit where he would not feel breathless. Lately he had seemed a bit better, still breathing fast, but tucking into his normal food and doing his normal things.
Yesterday, whilst my son was at work, I decided to dedicate the whole day to making things and sorting supplies for my shop. I still did the animal rounds, and it was a lovely day and I encountered Ebb out hunting in the sunshine, and later he settled happily on my lap, glad to find me in the living room in the afternoon, unusually, and we had a companionable few hours, whilst I knitted.
It often seems to happen that they get better just before things take a turn for the worse.
When my older cat Willow died, it took a while for her to actually leave – it seemed that for some weeks I saw her out of the corner of my eye, or heard her step, or felt the weight of her at the foot of the bed. But Ebby is suddenly not here – and I miss him. I’m completely reconciled to the idea of him dying, in fact my first reaction was one of relief, we knew it was coming, we had been here before. But we were spared having to decide it was time, we were spared wondering what, if anything, we should do, and thankfully, we were spared having to go looking for him, possibly never finding him.
A good life and a fairly good, if early, ending. Oh yes, his death is easy to accept, but him not being here is a huge gap. I keep looking for him, but unlike Willow, I don’t think he is hanging around, instead he left his useless body behind and tore off to other adventures.
And now, for the first time in 23 years, we don’t have a cat. And it doesn’t feel right.
Big fluffy hugs to you all xx
I am so sorry that Ebby is not around anymore with your family.
Animals are lovely companion especially cats.
Regards
Lee
The feeling of expecting them to walk through the door is the thing that got me the most, it is very strange. Poor Ebby.
Tilly always wandered off to strange places to hide before she died, I think she did it when she felt bad and reappeared when she felt ok again. Then unfortunately one day she was too ill to get up and go and hide somewhere
:- ( It must feel very empty without him. x
It’s always a loss when they go, even when there are positives to be found in the situation
So sorry for your loss. They bring us such joy, don’t they?
they do – that’s why we keep signing up for more.
So sorry to hear that, what a fabulous photo of him. If only all our beloved animal friends could leave us in such a peaceful way. Thinking of you xx
Always so sad when they go but the good memories stay for ever.
What everyone else said. RIP Ebby.