Rest in peace, Wally Heather. Words cannot justify the joy you gave us.

I know just how you feel, my cat Snowball was everything to me. I had two cats since I was 5, Snowball died when he was 11, and Cuddles is still going now at the age of 18. Cuddles and I where almost over the edge after Snowball died, we hardly ate or slept. My mom even feared for my life... I was so depressed....

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It is so hard to lose a pet. I have had the pleasure of having two cats as pets, one still alive, one who died back in '02. It was sudden and unexpected; I guess she had an undiscovered tumor somewhere in her stomach and it burst, killing her within an hour or two. She died a very slow, likely painful death, and I just hate thinking about it. I was not at home while it happened; in some ways I'm glad I wasn't.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I feel bad for moving on. It's like I did it myself, without knowing. I hardly think of him now that he's gone, unlike the first week after his death, it's so sad and depressing how memories fade after time.

I really should socialize more, but I'm not really an outgoing person. I'd rather stay at home, in my room or around the house. I don't really like cyber cafes(yes, I work in one), parties or anything like that. I'm more of an inside person.

I think my mother loved him far more than I did. She cannot seem to comprehend what's happened, and she'll randomly burst into tears in the middle of the night. I don't know what to say or do to make her feel better. I've told her this, and she just says "there's nothing you can say" which just makes me feel twice as bad in the end. It's a real shame because not only is this awkward, but she feels as if she's going it alone.

I made a book of memories, everything I remembered before he died, everything that was special. The special moments is what I cherish, but I'm still afraid that I'll somehow forget the finer details over time. So far, the little diary is something of about 15 pages long. Though it's quite small in size, I didn't really turn it into a blog. It's more of a notebook that keeps all of our memories and times together.

I'm still worried about my mother here, though. She seems to be taking it far harder than I am. We don't really talk that often and our tastes in things are different. It's hard spending time with her when she's this depressed, and the entire house feels empty. It doesn't even feel like home anymore, it just feels like a place where we live.

I looked at some pictures of Wally today. I really miss him, and the pictures bring mixed emotions. I'm happy and sad, or basically confused if you want to put it bluntly. I'm sick of people saying to me in real life "it's just a cat" or "you can't let this drag you down" because that's the most extremely generic lines of sympathy I've ever heard. I wish people would understand that all things are created equal, be it human or animal.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I had a cat that my mom took inside. She had a respatory infection, so she didnt live long. She was only about 4 monts old. She was tiny and when she was running she was slipping around the floor and it was so funny. We called her party house because she was always live and funny. But one day while my mom was giving her medication my mom and dad decided to put her to sleep, because she didnt want her to endure the pain. My mom cried for a very long time.

I have a cat right now his name is Frisky and I want to give him the best time of his life. He likes to be where I am alot. We were going to leave him at the pet store but my mom went back. So thats my cat. I think I wouldnt be alive if I didnt have my cat. Whenever I was depressed lying on my bed he would rub my face and sit next to me and lick and bite my face to make me laugh. Such a great cat.

I think cats and dogs can save someone's life, if they are thinking about suicide, but once they move on what do you do?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh man, I'm really sorry for your loss.

I know very well how it feels to lose a pet, because two years ago a had to make a decision for my cat, Säkä. Säkä was a fine cat, he never was ill or anything like that, and we were all very fond of him. But one day, Säkä started to have seizures. It was horrible to watch him suffer, his seizures were so bad that he accidentaly tore almost all of his right paw's claws off, and nearly bite me when I tried to help him.
I took him to the vet at that same evening, the vet took x-rays, she suspected a tumour. But because of some malfunctioning, the pictures were blurry and she didn't know for sure. She gave Säkä some medication, which calmed him down a bit, and said that I'll should watch him for the night, and if the seizures continued, I should bring him back for the final journey. And they did continue.
I remember that I was crying the whole time I was with Säkä as he was put to sleep, and I still cry a bit when I think about those last moments.

Now I have two cats, Nappi and Neko. Nappi was at that time a year old, and after Säkä passed away, Nappi depressed. He wouldn't eat enough or play with us, just sit or sleep. Luckily, one of my friends were giving away her cat, who was seven months old, and we took him to us. Fortunately Nappi liked Neko immediately, and now they're like best friends.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well i am 24 years old.I took my first and only pet when i was 5 years old.A beautiful male cat named mousoudis.The cat died when i was 22 after 17 years probably for being so old.It hurts.I remember all the good times we have been through me my family and him.All these years in good times bad times,when i growed from being a small child to an adult i had him.It is strange now i miss him very much.I just wish i could hold him and hear him and touch him again.

FELIPE NO

I feel sorry for you, I remember about 4 years ago when my dog just fell over one day and couldn't get up. It turned out she had a stroke, she was 15. I just sat there all day patting her until my parents finally decided to take her to be put her down. She died on my sisters birthday party Shes now burried in the backyard covered in my old spiderman blanket.

Just know that your cat loved you, and at least you got to say good bye, instead of just finding him hours latter.

How ya doing, buddy?

I appreciate the kind words.

As much as I'd like to say things have gotten better, they really haven't. The house feels dead, my mother's punishing herself, my grandad isn't helping the situation either, and I've lost incentive to do pretty much anything.

It's been 3 weeks and 1 day since it happened. Feels like yesterday, but as much as my mother says that she killed Wally, I cannot help but think that if I had said no to him getting put down, we wouldn't of ended up doing it.

I feel partly guilty for coming to the conclusion th at nothing more could be done, and we had to put him down. If it was the "right thing to do" we'll never know. People can tell us over and over that it was the right thing to do, but you really don't know for sure.

It's still a touchy subject to talk about, but yeah. I want to punch my grandad in the face, because we didn't take Wally to the vet very often(only when something was noticably wrong) and he's like "People who can't afford vet visits for their pets shouldn't have pets" and that doesn't help the situation either.

It still doesn't feel like we've odne the right thing. He was getting worse, though, but when he was going to die naturally, we just wouldn't know.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I lost a pet rabbit I had for eight great years of my life, so I know how you feel. The death of a previous pet in 2003 made me constantly think of the inevitable fate of my rabbit.
I didn't know when the day would come, but expected it and had come to accept it as something I'd have to deal with.
At least until Christmas 2005.
I approached him, he seemed sluggish, so I gave him some oats which always perks him up, but to no avail. Some prodding and I realized something horrible was wrong, I picked him up and tried to make him feel better, but I couldn't. I called my parents so they could be there to see what was going on. That's when it started to sink in. He struggled and kicked, made his very first noise with his vocal chords, a horrible cry. He kicked and kicked until he was just laying there, motionless and staring at us.
On Christmas he died. And the next day I put his stiff motionless corpse into a box and we buried him right under where he died. While I never cried (like I said constant thinking of his mortality before he even looked like he was going to die prepared me for this), it affected me deeply. I barely go outside to the area where he used to live, not because I can't or won't realize the fact that he's dead, but I just don't have any reason to be there any more.

It's the first time I ever say someone I cared about die right in front of me. It was both the most horrifing and beautiful thing I have ever seen; a liberation from life, but the end of a great connection. Even today when I see a rabbit, it tugs at me, knowing that the one I cared about the most is gone. The one constant all the years I lived at my current home was gone and it scared me how easily I transitioned away from him.
I know what losing a friend is like, sometimes the loss can (and was in this case), worse than the loss of anyone else you've lost before.

March 3, 1997 - December 25, 2005

Goodbye, not forever, but for a very long time...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Whoa, sega, did you find out what it was of the rabbit's death? I just had something VERY similar happen to a pet rabbit (actually, sadly, three of them) of mine two days ago (it was just a baby too, ugh). And my condolenses on that even if it's four months late, as I had to witness what you did myself. It's just not cool.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by mortis

Whoa, sega, did you find out what it was of the rabbit's death? I just had something VERY similar happen to a pet rabbit (actually, sadly, three of them) of mine two days ago (it was just a baby too, ugh). And my condolenses on that even if it's four months late, as I had to witness what you did myself. It's just not cool.

He had an incident several months back where he was sluggish as well, a vet suspected it was kidney failure, he gave him a shot and he was fine until Christmas rolled around. I strongly suspect his kidneys finally failed him.

How ya doing, buddy?

I am really sorry for your loss, Elixir. About three or four years ago our family had a cat called Shelly. Everyone was very attatched to her, so it was very sad for us all when her kidneys failed. If you ever doubt having Wally put down, please, just don't. Trust your judgement. Shelly died in my brother's arms, struggling to breathe and in pain. You and your mother did the best thing, it was honourable to Wally. Don't feel bad for moving on, it's a good thing. Just because you don't feel as bad as you did the first week doesn't mean you'll forget him.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Bernard Black

I am really sorry for your loss, Elixir. About three or four years ago our family had a cat called Shelly. Everyone was very attatched to her, so it was very sad for us all when her kidneys failed. If you ever doubt having Wally put down, please, just don't. Trust your judgement. Shelly died in my brother's arms, struggling to breathe and in pain. You and your mother did the best thing, it was honourable to Wally. Don't feel bad for moving on, it's a good thing. Just because you don't feel as bad as you did the first week doesn't mean you'll forget him.

I see a frightening trend here, kidney failure seems to be a common old-age cause of death.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The 9th of April. It's been exactly a month since Wally's death.

It's still hard as hell. After all, Wally was family. It was, truthfully, like losing a 12 year old brother, cousin or anybody you've known for 12 years which you could relate to. It hasn't been easy either, as we're quite a small family, and Wally was considered family.

I think he's definitely gone to a better place, after realizing that life isn't so great. Of course I'm not going to do anything stupid, but I'm not so sure about my mother. Usually when there's a conversation involving Wally she cracks up, as she still feels as if she's killed the one thing she loved the most. Apparently, my mother loved my cat more than she loves me, but that's totally understandable.

My mother has surprisingly taken this harder than I have. I never knew that Wally and her were so close. I can't begin to express how close they were, which isn't saying much, but it would be quite difficult to do so. It isn't a matter so much of expressing words for their connection, as it is with how strong their connection was to the extent of it being indescribable.

We stille end up going down around near the cat food area at our local supermarket. It's just a force of habit, and then we remember what he didn't like and did like to eat. Wally was quite a fussy eater, kind of like myself, heh.

It's not easy losing a pet, family member, or anything that's irreplaceable. The solution is not to "get another cat" and replace Wally, because eventually said cat will die, and we're back to square one again. That's not the right perspective to look at life from, but it's reality. I don't think anything could replace Wally.

If he comes back reincarnated, we'll see. If he doesn't, then he doesn't. Nobody really has a say in the matter over reincarnation, so I'd rather not go there. I do believe that once you die, you meet with your passed family members and loved ones. It only makes sense, and it's only right. If however, we aren't reincarnated, and we aren't met up with loved ones after death, I wouldn't miss this life I've had very much. Not saying that I haven't had a good life so far, but I'm constantly told to look at the present, and future. Not the past. And that also makes perfect sense.

I'd like to thank yet again, everybody who contributed to this thread in a kind manner, with sympathy and advice. I was not seeking either; merely expressing a tribute to someone I loved very dearly. For some people, they may not understand how one person or persons could become so attached to a simple cat, but then again Wally wasn't just a simple cat. I hope everybody understands that all living things should be treated equal, whether they're human or animals.

The time has come to close this thread. If you'd like to say something, feel free to throw me a PM any time. Thanks to all who have contributed, and who have refrained from contributing, to this thread.

This is for you, Wally.

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