Cat Love

My black and white long hair cat, Priscilla, was a stray cat I took in when I lived with my mom, shortly after my divorce. She was a really good size cat, but it was obvious someone had just left her, maybe moved away and never looked back. She was starving for food and a good home. She liked to come in and go outside both.

One night when she came in from outside she was bleeding and I could tell she was in pain. I took her to the vet and she cried all the way there, which made me a nervous wreck. They took her in and apparently she already had a wound across her backside and it opened up and became infected. The vet said he would call me when she was fixed up and ready to go home.

So, the vet calls and I go to pick her up and shell out a few hundred bucks for this cat I've only had for about a month. The vet warns me not to get upset when they bring her out. Now, I'm getting a little worried. They bring her out and they have shaved her hair off almost all the way across her backside. That alone was a shocker. She also had sutures that you could see across her back and she was wearing one of those vets collars that cats hate. The vet gave me medicine and told me she had to keep the collar on so she couldn't pull out those sutures. Then, the vet tells me I need to pull on the sutures every day, and now I'm really freaking out and thinking, are you kidding me!

I take her home and tell my mom about the medicine we have to shove down her throat and how we have to pull on her sutures twice a day. My mom is as shocked as I was. I was thinking that I can't do that. Well, together we did what we had to do and she hated it and we hated it. She was so scared she slept next to me in the livingroom and I think that's when she really bonded with me. I felt so sorry for her and I worried about her all day, while I was at work. I was almost crying on the drive to work. She kept trying to get that collar off, but it was on really tight.
A few nights after her return home from the vet, I'm starting to fall asleep and I hear something that wakes me up. I can tell from the sound that she's trying to get that collar off, hitting it against the wall. I get up in the dark and run toward the sound thinking, oh my god, she's got the collar off. I pick her up in the darkness and I feel something kind of warm running down my night shirt. Oh my god, I'm thinking, she got the collar off and ripped out her sutures and she's bleeding all over me, I just can't take any more of this. I turn on the bathroom light and I see that she still has her collar on and she just peed on me. I was never so happy to have a cat pee on me in my whole life. Oh, Thank You God.

After this incident it was time for a return visit to the vets. The vet told me I needed to pull the sutures harder. I told him I can't do it, can she stay here and you guys do it? Well, we can do that says the vet, but it will cost $5.00 each night, like that's a lot of money after I already paid a few hundred. I didn't hesitate. I said yes, please.

They took her and kept her for close to a week and then called me to pick her up. She was so much better. I was so happy and relieved. I knew I loved animals, but there's no way I could ever be a vet. Ever since that time, Priscilla was my baby. Once she was all healed up and her hair began to grow, she started growing too. She had quite an appetite. She ended up weighing 17 lbs. at her heaviest. One of my neighbors once asked me when she was going to have her kittens, and I told her she's just fat, not pregnant.

Priscilla lived for somewhere around 17 years. As she grew older, she started losing weight even though she still had a good appetite. She was just getting old. My mom came over one day and was shocked at how thin she was and she could barely walk. I knew the time was coming and since my mom was there with me, I took her to the vet with my mom. The vet weighed her and she weighed about three pounds. The vet said she was just getting old and there was not anything we could do, so we had the vet put her to sleep. The vet asked me if I wanted to stay and I quickly said yes. I held her and petted her as she slowly drifted off. I let the vet take care of her remains.

I think I was in shock for a day or so. Then came the sadness and even guilt. I asked myself if I put her to sleep too soon, but I knew the vet agreed it was time and I didn't want to deal with coming home one day and finding her dead.

Easter day I was going over to my mom's for lunch and before it was time to go, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I started bawling and bawling and then the phone rang. My mom was calling to find out when I was coming over. I couldn't stop crying and mom asked me what was wrong. I kept on crying and saying over and over, I want my Priscilla back. I loved that cat and I still have framed pictures of her. She went through so much with me. I'm happy she had such a good, long life, it was just hard to let her go. I still miss my baby, Priscilla. I now live with a roommate and each one of us has a cat. I had mine before Priscilla died, which I think helped a lot. I love the cats we have now, but Priscilla will always have a special place in my heart.