We recently said good bye to our dear sweet cat Madalyn. She had been with me for sixteen years. She loved to cuddle and lay in the sun. She was also siamese and let her presence be known with a persistant meow. She lived in three states with me and within those states, six homes with three temporary homes during moves. She was an amazing cat full of personality and we miss her dearly. With a heavy heart and eyes swollen with tears, I sent this email to those who knew her well on the evening of her passing.
On Aug 15, 2011, at 10:10 PM, Carrie Hamilton <carriehamilton@comcast.net> wrote:
There is really no easy way to share our news and because it is difficult, I'll apologize in advance for the mass email.
Sixteen years ago, I found Madalyn in a pet shop in Spokane. She looked just like my cat Snowball that I had when I was in the fourth grade. Unlike Snowball, who didn't last the winter, she was a survivor. She was sickly when I took her home but after a few weeks she was a healthy kitty. She moved with me to Seattle where she was tortured by my roomates cat, Latte. I think it may have been a love / hate relationship for those two. From there we moved to Nevada where we lived with my brother Jerry. He discovered she did not enjoy a ride in his truck like a dog but she did enjoy a good stretch which he called "kitty chiropractor". She also picked up a nasty cough which I discovered after we moved to Colorado was asthma. She was by my side with friends, roomates, boyfriends and then Keith. She may not have liked sharing space with Keith at first, but the two of them grew to accept the fact that neither one was leaving. I think they had a secret fondness for one another but would never admit it. The cat who never cared for children also grew a fondness for those who loved her most, Oliver and Kellan. One year ago, Madalyn had her first and only outdoor adventure that lasted 48 hours. She survived an attack by a stray cat and no food or water for two days in the heat of August. This past winter, we noticed a dramatic decline in her health. In early July, we took her to the vet and she had dropped from 8-9 lbs to 4.5 lbs. After blood work and an ultra sound, all tests came back negative. The only thing that had changed was we had quit giving her prednisone (for her asthma) because she had not had an asthma attack in weeks. The conclusion was the prednisone was helping with an ailment that was not detectable. This was seven weeks ago and she was quickly back on the prednisone in hopes she would stabilize. For the next several weeks she seemed to perk up. She had been having trouble with her back legs and even though they were not in as good of shape as they once were, we believed they were getting better. The constant meowing that we had been experiencing had even stopped or greatly declined. In the past week, the meowing started back up again. This past weekend she meowed non-stop, all day long. We put her on our bathroom scale and she weighed in at 3.6 lbs. We also noticed that her back legs appeared to be getting worse again. It may be that we were just hoping she was improving and it took some time for us to see the reality that she was still not doing well. Keith and I took her to the vet this evening and the vet still did not have a reason for her weight loss. She did notice the almost complete loss of use in her back end. She concluded that she probably had arthritis in her back legs and spine with nerve damage. She also said that she had muscle atrophy in her back end with no existing muscle. She confirmed what we suspected that she was probably in a lot of pain. Even if she could have treated her weight loss, she would never regain use of her back legs like she once had. We came to the difficult conclusion that it was OK for Madlayn to go. She went out in style, just as you would expect her to. She was very calm and almost seemed relieved. It has been very difficult to watch her deteriorate like she did over this past year but we know that she had a great life. Once of the hardest parts was telling Oliver. He took it very well and I think he knew what was coming. Last night, he helped me change her bed cover. Her aching bones had the pleasure of resting in a heated bed these past several months with a baby blanket on top for comfort. Occasionally, I would give her a fresh and clean blanket. Oliver placed the new blanket on her bed and invited her to lay on it. When she did, he looked at her for a long time and said "she's OK now." She didn't leave her bed for the rest of the night. Tonight, when we told him, Keith started by saying "Oliver, do you know how Madalyn was really sick and old?" He responded with "Did she die?" I was a bit surprised with his immediate conclusion, but he is a young boy with a great amount of insight. After we told him that she had passed, he said "I will miss her. We will all miss her." We then talked about kitty heaven and who she is probably playing with. If your're wondering, she is playing with an orange cat and a rainbow cat. Oliver said the rainbow cat is the best because they have all of the colors. I'm sure he is right.
MadalynAugust 10, 1995 -August 15, 2011
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