Your Pet Loss Stories

by Lisa
(Ridgefield, NJ USA)

Our sweet cat, Hannah, passed away today at the age of 15. We had her from a kitten and she was the most sweetest and beautiful calico cat you could ever meet.

My husband (we were dating at the time) had recently had to have his cat put down and one of the girls that worked in a supermarket he delivered bread to (he worked for Wonder Bread) said you don't seem yourself and my husband said he just had to have his cat put down. She said my cat just had kittens and on your day off I'll bring her in and you can look at her. Well, my husband fell in love with her as he never had a calico cat before.

When we started dating, Hannah was about six months old and took to me right away and we joked that she become more my cat. When we got married and had our daughter, Hannah was so great with her. She always laid either under or near her little bouncy chair on the floor, she was like a mama.

If any of us were sick or upset, she knew and would lie with us and comfort us. She would not leave our side. If I was upset and crying about something, she would move her body right against mine and purr and comfort me. People that didn't like or care for cats loved Hannah. She would always lay with one of us on the couch. We used to say she was "on the job", that she took her job seriously being devoted to us.

When she was about 13, she was diagnosed with chronic fatal kidney disease and had gone into kidney failure. We had her in the hospital and she rallied back and we had two more great years with her. About a week ago she started failing rapidly. She was starting to drag her hind legs, she was twitchy and jerky and wasn't eating. We did what we could to make her comfortable, but we knew it was her time.

She had a peaceful passing and we were able to bring her home and bury her in a nice spot by the fence at our house. She deserves a nice resting place. I couldn't bear it if they put her in a plastic bag and threw her in a freezer and then mass cremation. We took her home and buried her and my husband read a nice prayer and we put flowers on top of her box.

She was the best cat and there will always be a big void in our lives without her, but she's at peace and her suffering is over. The vet gave me four nice paw impressions and I'm going to get a tattoo done with her paw. I'll always have something of her with me. Her last week we all spent a lot of time with her and loved her and we all told her how much we loved her and I knew she understood. Hannah, you will forever be in my heart.