The Palmers in Colorado: We'll miss you cat-tee!

On Saturday, June 11th we heard a lot of commotion upstairs. Joe & Kman were in the bath, so we knew it wasn't them. When the dog came running down with her tongue hanging out in pure post-cat-chasing joy, we knew she ran into Tigger in the hall and gave her a good chase. Tigger hid for a few days, which is perfectly normal after a Sonya run-in. Mom found her under her bed that night, but she refused to come out, so she gave Tigger her food and treats. She kept checking in on her, but she still wouldn't come out. She did finally heard Tig come out one night, but didn't see her when she was out. It wasn't until a few nights later that Cat-tee (as Kellan calls her) came out and Mom saw that her back leg was broken. We took her to the vet, and they confirmed that it was a break - a spiral break across her whole leg at the ankle area. Cat-tee was a trouper and an excellent patient according to the vet. She and the vet tech couldn't say enough what a great cat she is. But this was just confirmation of what we already knew - Tigger has always been the best, most gentle cat!

I should take a step back I think. I lived alone the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college while my Mom and Nate went to Colorado for the summer to be with my Dad. I was so lonely and wanted a pet, but my parents were smart enough to tell me NO DOGS! They never dreamed I'd get a cat because I hated cats. But I didn't want a hamster, fish, or some other animal - I wanted something I could snuggle with. :) I was gone a lot on the weekends and a cat seemed like the perfect solution. And, I knew people at OWU who had cats stashed in their dorm rooms, and Rae, my friend & roommate the next year, was a cat lover, so I thought we were golden. Tiggy was the best companion! She was a bit of a terror (and actually scared me a few nights) at first, but she quickly mellowed out and made friends with the cat in the mirror on my closet and we became fast friends. Unfortunately as she grew older, I became more and more allergic. It got to the point where I could not touch her, or where she had been sitting even without my eyes swelling. We tried to take her down to OWU that year, but we realized since we were in a dorm where the cleaning person came each week to pretend to wipe down the bathroom in our room, we weren't going to be able to hide a cat. So Tigger went back on the 2+ hour trip to Stow with my Mom, screaming the whole way.

Tigger stayed with my Mom in Ohio until she moved back to Colorado when Nate graduated. She & Nate were good friends and I always wondered if maybe she would ultimately live with him. Tigger made the move to Colorado with my Mom when Nate went to OSU. My Mom had a dog at the time (Mittens) and she and Tiggy were definitely buds. They didn't always interact, but you could occasionally catch them snuggling. When we had to put Mittens down, Tigger was there for my Mom. She and Sonya (our dog) could never get along though. When we lived with my parents after first moving to Colorado, Sonya terrorized poor Tiggy. She eventually lived in the basement and would only come out when we would lock Sonya up at night. When we moved out and my Dad got transferred to California, Tigger was there so my Mom wasn't lonely. She really was the best cat!!

Tigger & my brother, Nate, had a very special relationship! She also loved to hid in his backpack (and any suitcase, bag or laundry basket for that matter). It always made packing interesting!

When we moved back in after Kellan was born poor Tigger resigned herself to the basement again. Mom kept trying to bring her up to her room and Tigger finally acquiesced and started living in Mom's room - and would of course come out and visit at night.

I'm not sure how it happened, but one night I brought Kellan in after his bath to say goodnight to Mom. Tiggy was on the bed and she started rubbing her head on him, and he thought it was the greatest thing since he can't pet Sonya since she's too grumpy, so it became a ritual. Every night I brought him in to try and feed a treat to Tigger, snuggle with her and say good night to Grandma. Kitty was one of his first words, and for some reason that became Cat-Tee and Cat-Tee stuck. We have found ourselves even calling her Cat-Tee. In fact when I texted Joe to tell him the sad news, I called her Cat-Tee then too. She was really his best furry friend. She loved with him almost every night and he just glowed when she rubbed her head on him, or sniffed a treat he offered her. He's so confused right now! I've been saying for a long time that I need to get a picture of them together one night, but I never remembered to grab my camera until after she was hurt. By then we tried to keep him away from here (except to blow kisses) because we didn't want him to accidentally hurt her. I know he won't remember her, but I'd love to be able to show him a picture of them together when he's grown. Oh well, it's more important to live life then try and capture it all in pictures.

So back to poor Cat-Tee's boo-boo. So after we had her x-rays done, the vet put a splint on and recommended surgery. She wasn't sure if their surgeon there was going to be able to perform the surgery to put a rod in her leg, or whether we would have to go to a specialist. Of course, all we could worry about was how expensive it was going to be. I feel so bad now, but we complained about the $450 the initial visit cost us, and worried about how much surgery would be. We heard numbers between $1200 and $2000+ and started wondering if it was a good idea to spend that on a 13 year old cat. My Mom talked to the vet surgeon the next day (he was out of the office during our first visit) and he said he could certainly do it in-house, and the estimates we received were probably WAY on the high end. My Mom asked about letting it heal, as the other vet had mentioned that we may be able to do that because of the location of the break, but that it would be a long process and Cat-Tee would hate having her splints changed. The vet surgeon said that because of the way it broke, it was best to do surgery, so surgery was scheduled for Tuesday - this morning.

We picked Cat-Tee up and took her home in her little splint with red tape, and a bunch of pain meds. She lounged around Mom's room all week and would sometimes even get up and hobble around. Once she tried to get on the bed (in the middle of the night, of course) and smacked into it because she just couldn't get the lift right. :( But other times she had no problem getting up. This morning she snuggled with my Mom for about an hour, which I am so thankful that she did. She hated that splint! She was slowly tearing the top of it off, so it was a a bit in strings at the top.

Mom dropped Cat-Tee off at about 8:15 this morning. They had done blood work previously and said everything looked fine. She set up an appointment to pick her up tomorrow at 11:30, and I was going to help get her and then have a nice lunch with my boy and my mom. I left asking my Mom to update me when she heard from the vet that Tiggy was out of surgery. I was a little surprised when Mom called just a little bit later. Something didn't sound right in her voice - "Do you want to hear some bad news?" "No, of course I don't" I said half joking. "Okay, then I'll just talk to you toooonnniiiigghhhttt!". I knew, I knew, I knew what she was about to say - please don't say it, just don't say it and it won't be real. "Mom, you have to tell me now!"

Poor Tigger had a massive heart attack when they were prepping her for surgery. They didn't even get the anesthetics in all of the way. She was so stressed by the whole procedure that her heart just gave out. The vet (who called my Mom personally, and apparently did not sound any better than we did) tried to resuscitate her for 30 minutes, but just could not save her. Statistically this doesn't happen - it's so rare that it's not even an advised risk. The vet has been doing this for 40 years and has never had this happen. He was incredibly devastated and told my Mom that "we just kept looking at each other like 'how could this happen; what happened?'" I lose focus for a while and then hear "She's being cremated and we can pick her up tomorrow". My poor Mom - I can hear Kellan in the back ground whining for the phone and I know he's confused as to why Grandma is crying. Grandma is his rock and one of his favorite people and he just doesn't know what's going on.

Mom texted me later that the vet sent some beautiful flowers and a card. Her message says "Guess that means it's true". She said that Kellan has been on edge all day. I hoped right that that he didn't ask for Cat-Tee that night when we go to say good night to Grandma as I wasn't sure any of us will know how to react. I think it may be time for a new nightly routine...

Unfortunately when we went in for good nights, he jumped out of our arms on her bed and started pointing for where the cat treats last were. Thankfully the Nuk kept him from actually saying "Cat-Tee", but I'm guessing those were the muted words he uttered. My poor Monkey - she was the only animal he could snuggle and love and he wants to snuggle and love EVERYTHING!! Especially living things!! :(

The good news is that Cat-Tee is running freely in heaven, rubbing on anything and everything and not being afraid of the mean little dog anymore! We love you Tigger!!