Garfield

    Yesterday was a sad day for our family, our little cat Garfield went to kitty heaven.

Garfield

    Garfield was the baby of the family, sweet, funny, fluffy, patient with the children and the only cat who dared to wrap his  tail around our husky dog who seemed to think she was the kitty’s  mother.

    Garfield was very fond of food, and even dare I say  a little greedy. He had a routine of drinking a little platter of milk every morning and often begged from several of us in a row resulting in his getting more than once his morning milk. Garfield was also the only  cat who had figured how to rip open the plastic foil off food, and so we had to always cover everything with a mosquito net bell.  Garfield was Roland’s special cat, we had gotten specifically a little orange kitty to replace Kiki-boy who had died after a short illness and left Roland heart broken.

    Everything was fine on Sunday, life as usual, eating, in-out, then out-in of the house several times, naps in all the favorite places and no sign of anything being amiss.

    Then around 4.00 am in the morning I was awaken by the sound of a cat meowing loudly, I got up and found Garfield looking as if he had a hair ball coming. So I took him outside and returned to bed, when I got up an hour later, the cats were let in from the verenda. Then it was we noticed that Garfield was looking strange, his chest was pounding and he laid down on the carpet in a stressed position. The children and I prayed for him, then I brought him to the bathroom and took the kids to school. Roland was starting school a little later that Monday, so he stayed home and called me twice saying I needed to come home right away. I decided to call the vet as soon as the clinic opened at 10.00 and then order a taxi to bring the kitty there as fast as possible.

    When I got home I saw the cat was looking worst, walking around with his body stressed and drooling,  I asked Roland to bring me a towel so I could carefully move him back to the warm bathroom, but as I wrapped the towel slowly around him, he had a sudden spasm and  instantly died in my arms ! I had just enough time to tell Roland to go away, I did not want him to witness the death struggle…… it was over in less than a minute.

    Later I looked up online about sudden cat death, and it seems to be more common then I could have imagined. Cats hide sicknesses and weakness and often the owner is not even aware that their pet has a heart condition, or other health issue.

    I cried, the children cried and even the dog was quiet and withdrawn the rest of the day.

We buried out little friend near the lilac tree and in the spring we will plant some flowers over his small grave.

    It is always sad to lose a pet, especially one that was loved and cherished by children…..

    Rest in peace sweet little Garfield !