{"id":215,"date":"2010-11-25T07:23:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-25T14:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=215"},"modified":"2010-11-25T07:23:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T14:23:11","slug":"memorial-day-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day (Shadow)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and not Memorial Day.\u00a0 For me, however, I am not feeling particularly Thankful.\u00a0 My cat, Shadow, died Tuesday morning, adding one more shitty event to this screwed up year.<\/p>\n

Although Shadow had not been particularly ill, she was showing signs of poor health.\u00a0 Her appetite had been decreasing, she was having trouble getting up on things, etc.\u00a0 Monday night, as I was about to go to bed, I found her laying in the litter box.\u00a0 She was trying to poop and having problems.\u00a0 Sam and I cleaned her up and I took her to bed with me.\u00a0 She was able to move enough to curl up with me and she even changed positions several times.\u00a0 Her last position, the one she was in when I woke up, was on top of my head.<\/p>\n

I got out of bed Tuesday and said good morning to her.\u00a0 She wagged her tail in response, but otherwise did not move.\u00a0 I did not think anything of it at first; I knew she had mobility issues.\u00a0 I did not realize how severe those issues had become.\u00a0 Sam got up a couple of hours later and said Shadow wasn’t moving.\u00a0 Closer investigation revealed she was breathing and could twitch her tail, but that was the limit of it.\u00a0 Her eyes were open and I think she was scared.\u00a0 I know I would be if I was suddenly unable to move.<\/p>\n

So we got ahold of a church friend who took Shadow, Sam and I to the vet, where we euthanized Shadow.\u00a0 This was one of the saddest moments of my life.<\/p>\n

I remember getting Shadow fourteen years ago.\u00a0 It was either late October or early November.\u00a0 Sam and I hadn’t gotten together yet, so I don’t have her help to pinpoint the date.\u00a0 I remember picking her up from a group of rescued kitties at a small pet shop.\u00a0 She rolled over in my hand, and in that moment I fell in love with her.\u00a0 There was no option for me at that point.\u00a0 I paid for her shots (she was otherwise technically free) and went on my merry way with her.<\/p>\n

Between then and now she has been my most consistent companion.\u00a0 There is no other way to describe it.\u00a0 When I have been home, she’s been home with me.\u00a0 Almost every single night she would curl up beside me in bed, at least for a little while, and we would cuddle.\u00a0 She would purr and I would fall asleep.\u00a0 This includes Monday night.\u00a0 She is a loud purrer, and although her volume was reduced that night, she very definitely purred a happy purr on her last night with me.<\/p>\n

So words fail me.\u00a0 I cannot describe this loss, anymore than I could describe the loss of Danny earlier this year.\u00a0 If you haven’t gone through it, you won’t know what it’s like.<\/p>\n

Soon, I will get another kitty.\u00a0 I will name her some derivative of Shadow–probably some foreign translation of the word.\u00a0 She will be a female kitty and she will be another black cat.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Shadow is being cremated.\u00a0 I will be getting a black-cat shaped urn tomorrow or maybe Monday.\u00a0 The figure will be in a resting position, and will sit beside Danny’s urn.\u00a0 Rest in peace Shadow.\u00a0 I miss you terribly.<\/p>\n

\"Shadow\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and not Memorial Day.\u00a0 For me, however, I am not feeling particularly Thankful.\u00a0 My cat, Shadow, died Tuesday morning, adding one more shitty event to this screwed up year. Although Shadow had not been particularly ill, she was showing signs of poor health.\u00a0 Her appetite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}