Your Pet Tributes

by Paulette
(Michigan)

Toonces was born Feb. 14, 1998 in Mannheim Germany. I was living there at the time with my husband, who was in the Army. I was on a list for a kitten at the military vet clinic. A litter was dropped off there one morning in April 1998 and I got the call.. first come, first served!

By the time I ran up there, only 2 kittens remained: a brown and white female kitten and a male black and white kitten. There was another couple in there looking at them, but luckily they chose the brown & white girl, because I did take to the black & white one right away. His first reaction to me was to arch his fuzzy back and hiss. I picked him up and loved him from that day forward.

My husband and I split and me and Toonces flew back to the US. He has been my best friend through all of life's hardships. He was always there to comfort me and make me laugh. Giving birth to my (human) son in 2010, I was worried Toonces would not take to him, as he disliked children. They made him nervous. But he loved my son Tyler from the start and was very protective and loving to him.

The last few days, I noticed a change in Toonces. He just looked older... was peeing in a different spot of the litter box... not eating much. Meowing differently even! Last night I took him to the emergency vet clinic, where they discovered he was in kidney failure. It was pretty bad. With him being diabetic and almost 15 years old, there really was no other rational decision than to have him put to sleep. It broke my heart, but he was suffering and I had to do what was best for him.

It is a worse struggle than I ever imagined, and I imagined it would be bad when his time came. I take comfort in knowing I was able to be with him in his final moments, holding him and kissing him as he drifted off into kitty heaven. Toonces was very, very loved and will be sorely missed for the rest of my life.