Beginnings and Endings

We just got home from the trip no pet person ever wants to make - the one where we had to say goodbye.  And because I needed to remind myself that as one life ends, others are beginning, these are six little 3-day old house wrens.

Our sweet Phoebe continued to decline this weekend, refusing food and water.  Twice she tried to find a place to hide and both times Jax was able to find her and alert us.  So we knew this was the end.  I talked to the vet this morning and she had the results of Phoebe’s blood work from Friday which showed her liver numbers to be “off the chart”.  And at 11, with both of us stroking her, she took her last breath with the assistance of our compassionate vet.  I’ve cried so many tears at this point that you’d think I’d be dried up, and yet they keep coming.  

Phoebe joined our family in fall of 2007, after spending about 4 months in a shelter after someone dumped her in a parking lot on a busy highway at roughly 2 months of age.  She was terrified and underweight when we brought her home, and immediately found a hiding place in our linen closet where she stayed for several weeks.  Our resident cat, Rocket, was not happy and expressed his displeasure with hideous noises every time he saw her.  But somehow, she eventually won him over.  If he was on my lap, she’d climb up and lay on top of him.  He’d growl and leave.  Eventually she just wore him down and although he’d rumble a little when she crowded into his bed or onto a lap he was occupying, he’d let her cuddle up to him.  

She was also great friends with our collie, Carrie and then later with Jax when he joined the family.  It took her a very long time to warm up to Charlie and while they never had the relationship that she and Rocket shared, they coexisted well enough.

She was always a sweet natured cat - loved laps, warmed up quickly to visitors, and spent most of her time near us.  In the last few years, she developed a particularly close bond with Hubs.  As her appetite declined, it was always him who could entice her to eat and I think she associated him with yummy things.  At night before we’d go to sleep she would get up in the bed and lay down on hubs chest until he fell asleep.  Never with me, but always with him - it was their special bond.  

So now we are four.  Phoebe will live on in our hearts and memories.  Her ashes will be buried near Rockets under the grove of cedar trees in the front of the house.  

I know this has been a bit of a ramble. If you’ve read this far, thank you.  And if you want to see a pic of Phoebe click here

I did not blip yesterday but I am going to back blip a pic of Phoebe later - I wasn’t going to post it because she looks so frail but decided that since this is a record of the moments of my life, I’d use it.  

Hug your pets, and always make time to give them some extra love.  The love you give them will be returned tenfold.

Xo
Debbi