Oh Deb, now you got me going again! Mollie has been fiercely missed since Thanksgiving- I'm actually getting a very subtle tattoo (in a light brown/birthmark color) of her pawprint.
I get the feeling that you'll appreciate my devotion that I wrote for her around Christmas. It took me a while to be able to write it without getting weepy. I got it printed with a lot (100+) of pictures and made into a book that is now kept with a little clay pressing of her paw print.
(hope you guys don't mind the length)
Okay. I think I can do this now without being weepy the rest of the day.
Mollie jumped into our car and adopted us on a stormy October night 10 years ago. At the time, we were amazed that she had been abandoned or was a stray, she was in such amazing condition (her coat was AMAZING). The vet aged her at about 7-8yo.
Since then, she has been my fairy godmother in disguise. Always there the second I started crying, but if I was just moping and wallowing in self-pity, she'd sit on the far side of the bed and give me the stink eye.
She always slept curled up against our chests under the covers every night. Always had the air of an old, aged Queen- she was the matriarch of our household. Mollie was one of the most photogenic cats I've ever known, and she was such an inspiration for my (and others) art.
Her eyes held a universe.
This tiny little girl got me through High School, and I would not be who I am today without her. She taught me so much about unconditional kindness and patience.
It was hard being 12 hours away from her the past couple years whilst I've been in college.
Last Christmas Eve, she had a grand mal seizure in my lap- a terrifying blessing in disguise. Bloodwork at the ER that night revealed kidney disease.
She was perfectly happy and content to doze out her days in warm sunny windows and get special food to keep her kidneys going.
Four months ago a lump developed along her lower jaw bone. We never got it biopsied, but odds are it was cancer.
A few weeks before Thanksgiving she just started getting tired, and lost interest in her food. My mom did her best to keep her comfortable (she wasn't too terribly worse for wear) until I could come home over Thanksgiving break to say my goodbyes. She never told me how far the cancer had progressed- Mollie's lower jaw was overtaken. I broke down crying when I came home and saw her for the first time in 3 months. The end-stages of kidney disease are...awful, to say the least. She looked like some sort of "phantom of the opera" but all she wanted to do was reassure me, nuzzling into my arms and trying to tell me
"it's okay, I'll be going to a better place, I love you, and you'll be alright."
I was able to spend a couple days with her before driving back to college on sunday, and the next tuesday she was laid to rest. She was 18.
She got turkey drippings mixed with her food all week, and got as much tuna as she wanted before she left.
In the end, I'm glad we let her go before she really started to waste away...
I have never been more thankful to an animal, nor even a person, than I am to Mollie. And that's what I told her before I had to drive off.
Thank you, sweet girl, for taking care of me.
Here is our last picture together-
And some from the past couple years-
Felines Past and Present
Thank you, what a nice thing to say!
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