And Then There Were Two

 Last week on Thursday, hubby asked me if our kitty Phil was okay and I said I thought so but would check. On Friday, I thought that something might be wrong. On Saturday we realized he wasn't eating his kibble, so we gave him extra gushy food.  We even got him some special food just for him. We thought maybe he had a bad tooth or something.   Then on Sunday we noticed one pupil was larger than the other, that there was now a lump on his neck or under his chin and his breathing was odd.   We got him to the vet on Monday, in the only emergency time slot that was available.  Monday afternoon we brought him home to bury him. 

We were totally stunned and hadn't expected to lose Phil at all because a few days ago, he was his normal self.  An xray showed his lungs were full of fluid, so much that there was barely any clear area and it had pushed his esophagus along his spine.  The vet said that the pupil size differences suggested that this was an incurable virus that he'd picked up as a kitten and that there was no cure, at least that is available here.    We had to make the difficult decision right then.   We really weren't prepared for this and had no expectations that we wouldn't be bringing Phil home.

Phil was my lap cat.   He slept on my legs almost every night.  Many days he demanded that I let him nap on top of me in the afternoons, which lead to a lot of novels being read, with a cat snuggled on me. In the winter he would crawl under the covers at night.  He'd figured out that if he wiggled his head up near the pillow, so that his head wasn't under the blankets, he could sleep there for hours or all night. 

He chose us as a home.   One summer we kept seeing an orange cat around the property for a few weeks. 

Supervisor Phil asleep on the job

Then one morning I was outside and he came up to me on the deck, crying and meowing.  I didn't know what to do, but I brought him some food and water, as he was so very skinny.   The next morning he showed up with his brother.  After a couple of scary incidents with predators, the two boys became house cats.  

They were both sweeties and didn't act like feral cats.  We thought they may have been drop offs, which sometimes happens in rural areas.   They were both well socialized and accustomed to people.   They fit into our family perfectly.  Phil was such a character that he was best friend to all of his chosen people and shared his affection freely.   He was a helper kitty, curious and liked to supervise everything.  I will miss him thinking that every skein of yarn was his to play with.  I will miss his cuddles, his charm and his personality.  This loss will be difficult to get over as it just hit us without any notice or time to prepare. 

RIP Phil, and safe trip over the rainbow bridge.