November 23/09; my parents said goodbye to my sister's dog Simba
unfortunetly, pepper passed away not too long after. Dec 15/09.
I still don't understand why the dog went before the cat, and I still don't get why the cat died. I understand he was old, 18 years but my cat is diabetic and overweight. She's still in way better condition.
My mother believes Simba caught some kind of a cold because he was sneezing, his eye was watery. His demise began when he stopped eating, then stopped going to the washroom. She took him to a vet on Bayview, who told her that he had developed cancer, then sent him back home. I told her to get a second opinion and go to my vet. They told her he was in pain and kept him overnight. He appeared to be doing better, but we were waiting on test results. He became weak and my mother was force feeding him. The test results were inconclusive so they figured it was time to let him go. If he had cancer, he was too weak to recover from the chemo they would have put him through. Simba was 11 years old.
I saw Pepper the following saturday and one of his pupils was dilated, while the other wasn't. It was also leaking, so I told my mother to keep an eye on him and if it gets worse to take him to the vet. I was thinking god forbid he die on them too.
A few days later, he stopped eating and my mother briefly mentioned in an email that it was his time too. I thought Pepper was depressed so I took him home with me and I turned my mother's appointment to a regular check up. The vet said pepper had some pressure in his eye and he's not eating because of bad gum disease. so I had to force feed him every 3 hours until he got some strength to eat. I was also given antibiotics for his teeth. From Friday to Tuesday, I was diligently up every 3 hours feeding him electrolytes. I watched him attempt to walk, get tired, then topple over. He was skin and bones. Fluffy wasn't very kind to him. She kept hissing at him and even swiped him a few times. I kept them separated. I kept him in a towel and he would sleep most of the time. When he first arrived Friday night, he went to the washroom and ate some wet food, drank lots and hid in my closet. Saturday and Sunday, he spent a lot of time sleeping or peeing wherever he was. On Tuesday, I thought I was making progress. He was walking more on his own, he wanted to eat after he hissed back at Fluffy when she hissed at him. Because he was peeing in his towel, I bathed him in the sink. He didn't like that at all and growled at me.
afterwards, he took a turn for the worse. He wouldn't eat at all even when force fed. I was working from home at the time, so it was really difficult for me. At this point in time, I think Fluffy was aware he was really ill. She wasn't mean to him. When I finished my shift, I sat in a chair with him in my arms, wrapped in a towel. Around 10pm, he started twitching sporadically every minute. So I had a heat pad over the towel to keep him warm. Then around 11:45pm, he went into some kind of shock like he was choking, then suddenly stopped and shivered. Then he completely stopped moving. I wasn't quite sure if he had a heart attack and went into a coma. So I put him on the chair I was sitting on and pet his ears. They were still warm. It wasn't until morning that I accepted him as gone.
I remember the vet saying that he did have a heart murmur when I went to visit. I took the day off, and I buried him in the backyard next to his favorite patch of catnip. I didn't have any issues digging the hole, just putting him in was so difficult. I kept him in the same blanket. I unwrapped it just to make sure, his eyes were still open so i closed them. Poor kitty. It's really hard to bury a childhood friend. It still makes me sad thinking about it. I tried so hard to bring him back. I hope he didn't die because I bathed him. I didn't want him to stink.
He went through this same sort of spell in October. My parents took him to the vet and he spent some time there. When he came back, he was like a brand new cat. Eating like crazy and full of energy. I was hoping for that.
On a lighter note, here are some memories my friend's had of Pepper:
Danny: I remember he would massage my back
Carrie: Pepper would massage my head.. when you lived at your moms and we would
pass out at like 3am from doing homework last minute an art projects..
LOL with ELMO!!! :)
Julie: I remember him scratching my feet during sleepovers. Would wake me up and scare the bejeezerz outta me!
Reena: I
remember when Danielle bought some kind of cat-leash harness to walk
him and it totally didn't fit, it barely fit his neck and he was
walking around wearing it,,,he looked so funny!
Dan: I remember he got cut up pretty bad from battling it out on the streets. He was one tough cat. A great cat.
My Mom: He would sneak under the blanket to sleep at night and purr like crasy...worst than your Dad snoring...
My favorite memory of Pepper was when this bird would fly down and attack him in the backyard. Usually, he did the killing and now it was payback time.
Pepper was an awesome cat. He was very affectionate. He loved to be picked up and purr so loudly. He would follow anyone, so we were always afraid someone was going to take him home with them because he was too friendly.
