Daily post 08 Aug 2006 07:16 am
My Kitten
Today I’m going to indulge myself. These are two photos of my boy, Claude, taken 18 years ago. The rascal has been a hunter all his life catching mice for sport, daring any pigeon to come near his window screen, and giving Heidi and me endless joy.
We found out yesterday that he now has Cancer in his liver which has metastasized to his right kidney. At 18 he’s too old to operate successfully without causing him pain for the rest of his life. Essentially, that means he has another month or so to go. It’s a blow. He’s still the kitten, to me, and he still acts it. It’s been a tough year.
on 08 Aug 2006 at 7:30 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
Sorry to hear this, Mike. Losing beloved pets is one of the worst things about sharing your life with animals. They provide so much pleasure to us, but they leave us too soon.
on 08 Aug 2006 at 8:27 am 2.Marco said …
Mike, I’m following you blog for a while now and I really have to compliment you on the quality of the info! Keep this up!
Sorry to hear this from your cat, I have lost one this year and it’s hard. Even if I now still have 3 of them left, I miss her still.
He’s had a great life, I’m sure! Best wishes!
on 08 Aug 2006 at 8:58 am 3.Tom Sito said …
Very sorry to hear that Mike. I also lost a cat very dear to Pat and I just a few weeks ago. We believe he was killed by a coyote, which is one of the hazards of pet ownership in LA. I still can’t quite accept he is not coming back. He brought us great joy as well. Be comforted that yours had a good long life and was loved.
Also, thanks for your earlier entry about the Disney Lincoln Center show of 1973. Inspired by you I wrote my own reminiscence in my blog.
on 08 Aug 2006 at 12:17 pm 4.Didier Ghez said …
My sympathies Mike.
Thanks for the plug yesterday about my new blog. I hope it manages to help put a smile on your face in this difficult week.
Didier
on 08 Aug 2006 at 2:06 pm 5.Ward said …
We have a small black cat named Baby who we swear has more than 9 lives. She’s 15 and still just as bright and kittenlike as she was when we found her in ’91. Back in ’99 we thought we were going to lose her when she began to display some odd symptoms: listless, sleeping all day, never wanting to play, disoriented, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc. We took her into the vet and they told us that she had some serious problems with her kidneys and it looked like she might have cancer as well. They gave us the option to possibly put her to sleep without coming out and saying it, but no—we wanted to keep her alive, no matter what it took. After a week at the vet and then after about a month at home administering IV injections into her and then rehabilitation (the vets thought for sure that it would be her last gasp and so it would be best for her to pass away at home), she suddenly became a kitten again. It was wild. We couldn’t believe it—it was such a shock to us because we hadn’t seen her play like that since she was little!
I can only hope that Claude has many more lives under his furry little belt of his. Pets are definitely family. My best wishes to you and yours, Mike.
on 08 Aug 2006 at 4:30 pm 6.Rudy Agresta said …
Michael,I’m very sorry about Claude. We’ve lost several pets over the years and it was never easy. When I look at our now 2 1/2 year old dog, there is always that haunt in the back of my mind to when the inevitable will again happen. God is good though, and perhaps you will have more time than you think – and quality time too!
Sincerely, Rudy
on 09 Aug 2006 at 10:29 am 7.David Levy said …
It was my pleasure to twice cat-sit for Claude. He’s a really special cat. And I know he loves Michael because he would cry all night when he would discover Michael wasn’t there.
on 09 Aug 2006 at 1:15 pm 8.Thad Komorowski said …
Sorry to hear of another cat loss.
We got our second cat last year, Sniffles (not named after the Chuck Jones creation).
– Thad
on 14 Aug 2006 at 11:03 am 9.Bridget Thorne said …
Just saw the news about your cat, Michael. Sorry to read it.
on 17 Aug 2006 at 5:23 pm 10.Meg-Ann said …
I know how you feel…I lost two of mine a couple years ago. Even though it’s been a while I still miss them very much, especially one of them who’d been my best friend all my life.