Bye-bye, Kitty
This past Wednesday, one of our three cats, Blackie, died. She was a diabetic, and had apparently developed stomach and intestinal cancer recently. She hadn't been eating for a few days, and so couldn't have her insulin shots.
I knew she hadn't been in the best of shape over the past few months, but I was really hoping I'd be able to make it home to see her while she was still alive.
She was always the sweetest little cat. We found her back when we lived in NJ. She belonged to one of our neighbors down the street, but they treated her like crap. She spent all her time outside (and thus was coverd in fleas), wasn't well-fed, and hadn't been spayed. At a very young age she had already had a couple litters of kittens. From that, and beeing fed so poorly, she was a very small cat, and never grew that much. Anyway, she always used to come to our backyard, and we would feed and take care of her. Eventually we decided just to take her in and get her properly cleaned up and checked out. We of course took her with us when we moved to MD.
She was one of the friendliest cats I've known, but not in an annoying way: she would constantly want attention, but most of the time would back off if I was busy or just not in the mood. She just wanted to be loved, but respected my space. When she developed diabetes, we didn't expect her to last all that long, but she did. I don't recall exactly, but she would have been at least 15 or 16 years old this year.
I haven't really seen any of the cats that much since I stopped living at home during (at least) the summers, but she'll definitely be missed.