Goodbye Bowie Cat.

They say life can change in an instant, and this certainly isn't just for humans..... the animals in our lives are not strangers to sudden illness, such is the case with our Bowie Cat.  Halloween night will never hold the same fond memories for me.   As we were readying our youngest for trick or treating,  all focus went from her,  immediately over to Bowie.  One minute he was fine and literally the next minute he had lost all use of his back legs and whole back end, spine and all.  I will never lose the image from my head of him dragging himself just before I gently picked him up.  We rushed him to a 24 hour vet and after testing, they determined he had underlying heart disease, and a blood clot that had dislodged.  My heart had already sunk low, but hearing her words to come, put my heart in places it had not been in a long time.  The vet said that 9 times out of 10 when a cat has this happen, it cuts off all blood supply to the back end, and within hours the cat could be dead. She said it is one of the most painful things a cat can go through, but even in his pain he seemed so content to lay in my arms.  Bowie was given a 5- 10  % chance of survival, IF we rushed him to MSU veterinary school and he had surgery to dissolve the blood clot but she reminded us that he would still have a weakened heart already and she highly recommended letting him go without suffering any longer.

So I held him in my arms as he went to sleep, his little head resting in the palm of my hand. We brought him home to bury, with so many of our other creatures. 

 Bowie was my little shadow and followed me wherever I went. He was definitely a cat of routine, and  nightly he would remind me when it was time for bed so he could lay on my lap. Each morning, literally like clockwork, he would jump up into bed seconds after my alarm went off, to nudge me awake  either by poking me gently with a paw, or touching his little nose to my face. Every hour inbetween he was there. 

All I can say is how very very fortunate I feel that we were here at home when it happened. We could have been away for the day, or wake up to him paralyzed in the morning, or worse,  at our cabin for 2 days then come home to him already gone. He would have suffered completely alone., no people who loved him surrounding him.  When I think of that, I remember the words I once gave to a good friend who had just lost a dear pet.... that we need to be thankful for the small things, and let the positive somehow overshadow the negative.  RIP Bowie Cat.