Rest in peace my beautiful girl

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She hadn’t been doing well, what with the wheezing and coughing and the meds I was giving her weren’t making any impact. At 2 a.m. she woke me up because of the wheezing and I gave her an Albuterol treatment. It didn’t have any effect at all.

It became clear what I had to do – take her Evergreen Animal Hospital in Evergreen.

I’ve been my wit’s end with fighting her over the Albuterol treatments and after an exam and X-ray it was clear what was going on. The vet saw fluid in her lungs, cancerous tumors and her colon was full of air from gasping for breath. Life got real painful for Nina and fighting being held or restrained was more than she could tolerate. I couldn’t put her through anymore hassle.

Though her blue eyes were still bright and her appetite was good, being out of breath took up most of her energy. In the last two weeks since the last vet visit, I’ve been giving her Fancy Feast tuna at their recommendation to help her keep her weight but she was losing. She loved Fancy Feast tuna and each morning she got a plate of her own. We were in such a hurry to leave this morning, she didn’t get her last meal of Fancy Feast.

“Quality of life” the vet said.

Nina’s quality of life for the last 12 years has been pretty good. She came from a cattery in Ken Caryl and I met her mother, father, brothers, aunts, cousins. I brought her home just before Christmas 2003 as a present to myself.

Nina roamed a 3,300 square foot house and prowled a manicured lawn and moused through the roses that bordered the fence. She was a trooper when we moved to the mountains and our houses got smaller and smaller. Always game for new things, she adapted.

After Jack died Nina was alone for a short time and then the kittens started to arrive. She tolerated them but sniffed at them in disdain. Skeeter became her companion.

Most people who met Jack and Nina preferred Jack. He was a big, gregarious jerk and everyone loved him. Nina had a quirky personality but it was subtle and you had to look close to see it. She preferred water straight from the sink but she was partial to buckets with rainwater in them or water left over on plastic chairs outside.

Nina was a retriever. The house in Highlands Ranch had a lot of stairs and she would fetch those foam soccer balls and bring them back to the top of the stairs. Few people saw that trick but chasing things was her passion. Her quirks included having a thin skin. Bump her while she was on the bed and she’d jump down and sulk. Sulking was her forte.

Ragdolls are very intelligent and inquisitive. Her greatest dream was to get over the fence and explore but she only realized that dream a few times when she escaped out of the yard. She was an alley cat in a $600 coat.

Each spring Nina had to be shaved and as it grew back in, it looked rather ratty but she was comfortable. She didn’t require any restraints when at the groomers. The only thing that irritated her was the sock over her head to protect her ears from the blow dryer.

The vet tech petted Nina and completely ignored the baby-fine cat hair all over her uniform as the vet explained the few options open to me. Options included draining the fluid, putting her on pain meds and sending her home to say goodbye. Nina and I had been saying goodbye for the last two weeks. It was time.

The vet and vet tech took extra care with her this morning and after they placed the catheter in her leg, she floated away peacefully surrounded by loving hands.

Now I’m down to three cats, well under the Crazy Cat Lady limit.

We love our animals and they can be the living thing we are free to love and get loved in return. Saying goodbye is hard. Knowing she’s no longer in pain and can breathe and run and jump over the fence to explore is the only consolation right now.

I already miss Nina. My beautiful girl.