A tale of two kitties

Today has been a busy and extremely emotional day.

Mindy, our 13 year old much-loved cat had to be put to sleep today. She had developed something bad on her spine - the discs were compressed. The vet wasn't even sure if it was arthritis or some sort of injury, but she was in a lot of pain. She could no longer arch her back, causing her to retain her urine, which seemed to be the cause of the bladder infection a few weeks back. Dale had taken her in to the vet yesterday and they had done x-rays. Jo went along - the vet had kindly explained all that he could to her while she was there.

That didn't stop last night from being very rough. On her. And everyone in earshot. Jo has a very loud voice, and when she is in full bawl, oig. She was very, very upset, and couldn't quite understand why Mindy couldn't be well again. That would have been fantastic, but the vet didn't hold out much hope on keeping her comfortable.

So, this morning, Mindy had her last cuddles with Jo. The girls wrote letters and drew pictures and sent her off with a decorated shoebox to come home in. And the bawling continued.

Please don't think me insensitive. I am still upset myself. However, you needed to hear Jo to understand. I tried to let her cry it out. I tried to comfort her, talk it out, Dale showed her feline age calculators on the internet. She was just devastated and nothing would make her stop crying.

Until she met "Flash".

Flash is a four-week old kitten who should still be with her mommy, but she was abandoned and brought to the vet's office. Jo had been playing with Flash while Mindy was in X-ray yesterday. The ladies at the office told Jo that she wasn't old enough to go home yet, but that she would be up for adoption in a few weeks.

Right. Have you seen an eight year old's letter to her kitty "on the road to heaven" ? It is enough to break anyone's heart. Or at least make the vet clinic bend a few rules.

So, today, since the girls had to go get haircuts in town anyway, Flash got herself a new, very dedicated owner. And Joey is laughing again. We'll have to go get the new kitty some shots in a few weeks, but we have now adopted a shelter cat.



I'm sure that some parenting manual would have told me to make her grieve longer, but at least now we have time to get this little thing used to the farm before harvest and school start.

Char was also upset, by the way, but took things more quietly - she took a little walk by herself after we buried Mindy. Char was extremely concerned about Jo, though, so she was problem solving and encouraging her to adopt Flash every time Jo cried.

We still have to introduce Pixie to the new arrival, but she is in hiding from Tahi, so I need to wait for her to get hungry first. So I guess this is actually a tale of four kitties, but that isn't nearly as good of a pun.