Losing a Beloved Pet -- RIP Pumpkin Girl

 

Today my heart is heavy and my home is a bit emptier. Last night Steve and I had to make the difficult decision to put our sweet Pumpkin girl down. We noticed she was losing weight and not eating or drinking water like she usually did. She also had changed her spot to spend most of the day. She wasn't being her normal self. I moved her vet appointment up a week because we were growing increasingly worried. She was due for a well visit next week. When our vet saw her she knew something was wrong. After a quick examination she told us she needed to get an x-ray, bloodwork and some liquids into her. She was very dehydrated. She asked us to give her about 20 minutes. We sat on the porch of the vet clinic and waited. When she got all the results she called us in and brought Pumpkin to us. She was fighting tears as she told us that Pumpkin definitely had cancer. She had liquid in her chest and abdomen. We had two options. Take her to a vet hospital ER and let them try to remove the liquid and start chemotherapy or put her down. We couldn't imagine having our sweet Pumpkin girl spend nights in a cage away from us while the poked and examined her, so our decision was clear. It broke our hearts to say goodbye. 

Have you lost a pet? It is so heart wrenching. It is hard to stay focused today. We know we want to get a kitten soon. Our other cat has never been an only cat before and she loves being with other cats (well except our friend's kitten who kept hissing at her). For her we will get a kitten as soon as we can, but it is not as easy as it once was due to the pandemic. 

We will bury her ashes next to our beloved Simba's ashes. It was ten years ago that we said goodbye to Simba. Somehow Pumpkin is hitting me a bit harder than Simba did initially. Perhaps because we knew how sick Simba was and it had been so hard to see him suffering so much. Pumpkin's illness came on quickly or at least we noticed it only in the past couple weeks. Plus Pumpkin was younger than Simba. But I keep holding the image of Simba meeting Pumpkin on the other side of the rainbow bridge and showing her the ways of heaven. 

We adopted Pumpkin back in 2007. We had Simba. I had adopted him my first year of teaching. He was use to be the main focus of both Steve and I and we wanted another cat to take some focus off him before we had a baby. We went to the local shelter. At the time they had two kittens. They told us to take one out and see if we liked her and then put her back and hold the other. Well once I took Pumpkin (the shelter called her Tina) I didn't want to put her back with her sister. We took her home that day. We did not like the name Tina and while trying to decide on a name I affectionately called her Pumpkin. She always answered to the name and came when called, so she chose her name to be Pumpkin. When she was a kitten, she would do things we didn't allow. Simba would follow her around and meow loudly at her when she broke a rule. It was the cutest thing. He trained Pumpkin for us. The two of them got along greatly. 

When Simba became sick and slowed down. Pumpkin gave him the space he needed. And she was always happy to eat his treats if he didn't want them. In the end he would beg for treats and then vomit them up and beg for more. He honestly didn't remember he had just eaten and gotten sick. It was awful! When Simba left us we adopted Fluffy. 

Fluffy loves Pumpkin. She often tried to help groom her. Pumpkin suffered from colitis and often had trouble cleaning her backside. Fluffy loves to play with Pumpkin and sometimes Pumpkin enjoyed playing with Fluffy (or in spite of Fluffy when we were moving the toy for Fluffy and she didn't attack it Pumpkin sometimes would).  Now we have just Fluffy. My little snuggle bug. She literally curls up on my chest often when I'm on my computer. Hopefully soon we will be a two cat family again. For now, I will find ways to remember Pumpkin and create some memorial things for her--perhaps a Christmas ornament and another stepping stone since we have one for Simba. Rest in peace dear Pumpkin girl! We love you so much!