Maeby

Yesterday was a bad day. Yesterday we suddenly and unexpectedly lost our only pet, our girl Maeby. She had been feeling under the weather for about a day or so, not eating, sleeping in odd places around the house and she threw up one time. We knew she wasn't feeling particularly good, but didn't realize how serious it actually was.

Yesterday, Oren woke up with what I feared was pink eye and I couldn't get him a doctor appointment until the afternoon. This actually turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise because I stayed home from work with him and we just hung around the house feeling crummy waiting for his appointment later in the day. But since I was home I noticed something was definitely up with our Maeby. She still wasn't eating or drinking and she began breathing funny - fast, panting I'd never seen her do before. I could feel my heart sink, I just knew this was serious. After a few harried phone calls and scrambling to borrow a cat carrier she was at the vet an hour and a half later. Our doctor took one look at her and said it was bad. X-rays revealed spots all over her lungs. After a day of various treatments and observation it was determined her lungs were failing her and it was too late to save her. It was so strange, she seemed perfectly healthy just a few days earlier and now she was dying. 

I won't pretend I had the greatest relationship with that cat, she made it painfully obvious she preferred Josh over me any day. She had been a gift from Josh to me when we moved into our first apartment together. I had always wanted an orange kitten, for as long as I could remember. When Josh went looking for one, he found Maeby. She wasn't orange, but I didn't care, she was prettiest little cat I had ever laid eyes on. Our first pet, our first baby. She was so tiny in the beginning we were constantly losing her in that big, drafty apartment. I would call Josh daily, panicked, when I'd get home from class and couldn't find her anywhere. Ineveitably, she would always turn up in the back of a dresser drawer or the bottom of a shoe somewhere. I loved her with all my heart. Probably a little too much. I was constantly petting her, holding her, kissing the top of her little head when all she wanted was to be left alone - Miss Independant, she was.

She did, however, loooooove Josh. Always crawling into his lap, winding around his legs, looking for his attention. It would make me so mad! I was willing to smother her in love and he would give her a cursory pat on the head and she was smitten. (I think he had her at moderation.)

After awhile she became downright mean to me, sneaking up behind me and scratching my legs, jumping out from under the bed as I was crawling into it and biting my toes. She was like a temperamental teenage daughter - she treats you like shit, but you love her anyway because she's still your baby after all. We always joked that Maeby was so in love with Josh that her acting out at me was her attempt to kill me off and take over my life as Josh's wife. It was a tumultuous relationship we had.

But in the end, it was me there with her in her final hours. I was the one stroking her fur and whispering in her ear. I held her when she took her last breath and cried all over her pretty little head. I've never wanted a Georgia cuddle or to nuzzle those floppy, silky ears more than I did last night. It feels like the end of an era. We are now a petless family and that just feels awfully lonely right now.

Goodbye, Mae. We will miss you so, so much.  

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thank you to jessica for watching the boys last minute so i could make vet trips unencumbered

thank you to patty for the pet carrier and for watching the boys again while we laid maeby to rest

thank you to jean-marie for stopping by with the sweetest card - i cried all over myself reading it last night

and thank you to all of our friends and family for your kind words, warm wishes and sweet memories of our girl