Phoebe "G"

I woke up last Thursday knowing that it would be the last day with our eldest kitty cat, Phoebe G. Only a few months shy of 19 years, she has filled our lives with so much love, laughter, and joy, I could never have imagined life without her. It was an agonizing decision but we made The Appointment and waited for the dreaded day.

Phoebe adopted us -I should say adopted Mr. itsme- at the animal shelter in Nov 1996 by licking his face all over when he took her out of her cage; apparently it was love at first sight for her. The Vet said she was about a year and a half old and was a "tortoise shell." She was very pretty: black, white, and gold all over and quite hefty then. She and her twin sister (who we didn't know about until we were leaving) had been surrendered by a family 5 weeks prior. The reason the previous owners gave for giving her up was that she "was ugly." Have you EVER heard of something so ridiculous? They had been named "Little" and "Tiny." Really creative names and proof to me that they never deserved her in the first place.

We brought her to her new home -found out she gets car sick- introduced her to our Siamese cat "Rainbo" (named by a neighbor child, don't blame me) and they became fast friends until Rainbo died in 2004. Poor Phoebe G mourned for a long time and we eventually rescued two other cats -Samantha & Violet- to keep her company and they have been living happily ever-after.

While waiting for The Appointment, I heard about a Vet who makes house calls specifically for the purpose of euthanasia. We didn't want her last moments to be filled with the trauma of a car ride - and car sickness - so we made an appointment with him. He talked to us about what was going on and suggested that it might not be her time after all. In addition to her blindness and deafness, it sounded to him like she had dementia (kitty Alzheimers), which was the cause of the constant blood-curdling yowling and agitation. He thought she was experiencing high anxiety and it was her way of trying to get some kind of control over her situation. It made sense to me. He suggested we take a few days to reconsider and recommended a homeopathic called Rescue Remedy that is made up of the essences of certain flowers that are known to calm dogs, cats, horses, birds and even people during stressful times.

Long story short: Phoebe G is still with us and is doing much, much better. She still yowls and has #2 accidents once in a while (thankfully still uses the cat box to pee) but now that we know she's not in physical pain, we can calm her by holding her so she knows she's not alone. Another Appointment Day will come, maybe soon, but I'm so grateful for such a wonderful and caring Vet who gave us a little more time with her.

Anyone wondering what the "G" in Phoebe G stands for? Her story goes that the first time she heard Kenny G (we have all his Christmas CDs, nothing else) she was so smitten and added the "G" to be like him. Our version is that she was always so vocal that we were always saying "Phoebe! Gee(z), be quiet!" She's sticking to her version.