Meow Mix, Meow Missed

Coco Smith

My family pet cat

Born January 1, 2000

Died October 9, 2017

My cat was 17 years old, about to be 18. but she will never see it. She was sick for awhile but it didn’t get really bad til about a couple of days ago. She also had trouble eating so we kept changing her food hoping to find a suitable solution. But Saturday she stopped eating altogether, my mom had a wonderful idea of giving her tuna. It worked, she was eating the tuna, but it was short lived as we tried to give it to her again and she refused it. Then we notice that she kept hanging outside the bathrooms and remembered that she used to lick out the toilets. We thought that maybe she was thirsty so we brought her some water. So was the mission to feed her and give her water.

Sunday, was the quietest day ever, the cat wasn’t meowing, she was just weakly walking around. My parents had gone to church but I stayed at home for a personal reason. I open my door to find the cat sitting outside of it. She never did this, never, and because whenever she was outside the door, she would meow loudly enough to wake the dead. So I did what I need to do and went back to my room to find the cat still sitting there. I invited her in, and I watched as she slowly got up and weakly walk over to my bed to her usual jump spot. But she didn’t jump, I waited a bit before helping her up to my bed. Now she loved to sit and lay on my bed because I always kept a fluffy blanket over on top of my sheets. She would knead on it for thirty minutes to an hour before she would finally sit down, she didn’t this time. She just found a spot that was closet to me and there she stayed. I got up and went somewhere, and when I came back she would still be sitting there. She sat with me all day and most of the night

That night I went into the front room with the family to watch the next episode of the Discovery, but whenever I got a chance I would peer back into my room to see if she was there and she was. At one point she made her way into the front room where dad proceeds to pick her up and play with her. I notice that she took more care to not jump down on the floor hard. It was then I noticed that it must be too much for her to jump now. Even her walk was unsteady. we tried to feed her again but she refused, but she did drink some water. Everyone was worried about how we had to help her out so for the first time we set her pet bed in the hall in between our two rooms and laid some food and water near her we kept our rooms open in case she wanted to come in. Everyone went to bed but I was still up. Around four a.m., I heard a noise. I quickly looked out to find that she was gone. I looked in my bathroom to find that she was there looking at my toilet. It was then I realized that she tried to jump up on the toilet so I went back out to bring her some water. in which she did drink. but afterward, she didn’t move, she just sat on the carpet. I thought since my parents would be up in a couple hours that she would be fine until then. So I decided to get some sleep

I wake to find that nothing has changed, and my mom was returning home because she broke down at work. I also proceeded to call out of work because I didn’t really want to go without seeing her get better. Little did I know that that would be the last I see of her. I saw that dad had the pet carrier out, it was open but the cat had willing went inside on her own accord and not because she was pushed in. We took her to the vet to be checked out, but when it was time to let her out she didn’t want to leave. I had to pull her out the pet carrier. They examined her and did blood work, and what they found was not good. He told us of several things we could try to save her one of them is hospitalization, the other was to put her down. I knew that it, she would die soon, but I didn’t want to let her go, I wanted to see the price of her being hospitalized. It wasn’t until I saw the price when I realized I couldn’t save her. She was already in pain, and it would be easy for her to be let go of. I knew it but I didn’t want to.

I will never forget her reaction, she knew what was going on and was struggling, it wasn’t until I place my head against her that made her relax a little. They finally began to inject her with the solution. Right before she lost strength she practically forced her head against my arms. I couldn’t help but feel hurt, I felt that I had betrayed her. I couldn’t help but cry as I just lost the cat I had all my life. I grew up with her, played with her, heck she was like a furry sibling. Now she was gone.

We came home, already missing the cat. I went straight to my room, only came out long enough to grab something to eat before heading back. I had to leave for my night job soon and I didn’t feel like being bothered. When I came back my dad gave me a necklace of Coco’s tags. One that I’ll probably never take off for a long time. I cried to sleep that night.

The next morning was the just as bad as the day before, as I woke up to start my daily routine. I was looking for the cat but quickly realized she was gone, the pet bed, scratching post, and all her toys were already tossed out. But I stare at the places where they used to be as if they were still there, I remembered when that cat was using both of them. There was this place on the couch that I would find her every morning when I wake up, I could see he now sleeping. She would wake up the moment I laid next to her, but after I rubbed her she would go back to sleep and we would just lay there until I have to go to my day job. I laid in the usual spot staring at where she used to sleep, and I couldn’t help but cry again. I cried more for the cat than anything else in my life. After I left I left decided that it was too much for me to be in the living room because the cat was mostly always seen there. She was sleeping playing or just walking around mostly in that room. Every room in the house I could see her doing something.

In the Kitchen sitting around the corner waiting for her food or walking between us about to be stepped on. In the dining room sleeping on the chair or getting on top of the table even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to. In the garage where she sitting on the workbench near the window warming up or eating her food, sometimes she would hide in there. She would be in my parent’s room opening drawers to pull out my mom’s clothes or drinking out their toilet. In the office, I remember we had a desktop computer in there and she would climb on top of it to go to sleep only to fall off onto the keyboard. Whenever we tried to use that computer, whether she was asleep or awake she has her tail in the middle of the screen in the way. She would also walk in between you and the screen to draw attention to her, a habit that carried on when we got laptops, worsened when she would step on the keyboards on purpose.

She was also in my room. When I was little I had numerous toys, the ones I played with the most were legos, transformers, army men, and hot wheels. Coco would come in a walk around me and my toys. I would have everything a certain way and she would walk around it, only to use her tail to brush against it, knocking them over. But I didn’t care. As I got older my focus shift from toys, to computer games, video games, anime, and writing. (And yes in that order of what I picked up). No matter what I became interested in that cat was there, she watched a couple of anime with me, and watch me play my games. I found it really funny how a cat was interested in such things. Or maybe it was because of how it looked on the screen. She would cuddle next to me while I play my games, even if it was late I would let her her sleep for as long as I can before I had to get to sleep myself.

She was 17 (87) about to be 18 (88)

I’m 21 about to be 22

If I ever had a sibling living with me, it would be Coco

I only hope that she is in a better place because I sure do miss her here.