Everyone, I’m sorry to inject a sad note into the conversation, but on this cold Monday morning, please spare a thought for one of our family cats, Carla, who will not make it through the day.
Carla is a beautiful little dilute calico (calico patches over white) who has been with us almost all her life. She came to us as part of a kitten fostering program, as a “teenage” mother (only a year old) with five kittens, too many to look after alone, and so she was named Carlotta Perdita after two animal mothers in literature: tough and beautiful queen Carlotta in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s “The Great Escape”/“The Healing of Texas Jake”/“Carlotta’s Kittens” and lost young liver-spotted Dalmatian mother Perdita in Dodie Smith’s "The One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The kittens went to good homes; Carla stayed with us until her milk subsided, and then she stayed forever.
She has been with us for nineteen years, going on twenty. She has been the sweetest cat, who loves having her ears scratched and will kick/thump at the barest touch to them. Having been a mother cat once, she acquired and never lost the habit of licking her humans as if they were kittens to be groomed. She lost her hearing in her later years but never let it stop her from “shouting” for attention. She has been a dear friend to my mom, whom she stayed with as my brother and I went to our respective colleges and moved out, and a constant companion to our other foster fail of eighteen years now, grey tabby Leah.
Unfortunately Carla has been having kidney and bladder problems. This morning she passed a lot of blood and is no longer purring. My mom has done, and has authorized the vet to do, absolutely everything short of exploratory surgery – absolutely not recommended for such a supersenior cat. We believe nothing more can be done and that she is in pain, and so the dreaded final vet appointment has been made.
Everyone, I’m sorry to inject a sad note into the conversation, but on this cold Monday morning, please spare a thought for one of our family cats, Carla, who will not make it through the day.
Carla is a beautiful little dilute calico (calico patches over white) who has been with us almost all her life. She came to us as part of a kitten fostering program, as a “teenage” mother (only a year old) with five kittens, too many to look after alone, and so she was named Carlotta Perdita after two animal mothers in literature: tough and beautiful queen Carlotta in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s “The Great Escape”/“The Healing of Texas Jake”/“Carlotta’s Kittens” and lost young liver-spotted Dalmatian mother Perdita in Dodie Smith’s "The One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The kittens went to good homes; Carla stayed with us until her milk subsided, and then she stayed forever.
She has been with us for nineteen years, going on twenty. She has been the sweetest cat, who loves having her ears scratched and will kick/thump at the barest touch to them. Having been a mother cat once, she acquired and never lost the habit of licking her humans as if they were kittens to be groomed. She lost her hearing in her later years but never let it stop her from “shouting” for attention. She has been a dear friend to my mom, whom she stayed with as my brother and I went to our respective colleges and moved out, and a constant companion to our other foster fail of eighteen years now, grey tabby Leah.
Unfortunately Carla has been having kidney and bladder problems. This morning she passed a lot of blood and is no longer purring. My mom has done, and has authorized the vet to do, absolutely everything short of exploratory surgery – absolutely not recommended for such a supersenior cat. We believe nothing more can be done and that she is in pain, and so the dreaded final vet appointment has been made.
Please keep Carla in your thoughts today.
Thank you all.