Post by Tina ☺ on Oct 21, 2008 17:54:54 GMT -5
Hey everyone. This is a story I wrote a few years back. It is a totally true story and a rather sad story. It has been called a tear-jerker by some. Now that you have been warned, I shall let you move on to:
Destiny's Journey
It started out as a typical Sunday. The kids were leaving for church and we were preparing to go about our usual Sunday errands. First stop was Home Depot. On the way out, we bumped into a friend in the parking lot. We talked awhile and before the conversation ended, he mentioned that his cat had kittens and asked us if we wanted one. We both chimed in unison, "No way!" Another friend of ours, Jan, had offered us one of her kittens just the day before and we told her no thank you also. We already had enough living things in our house with three kids and two dogs! We said our goodbyes and headed for the next stop, the grocery store.
Out in the parking lot, with our bags loaded into the mini-van, we noticed a banana box in front of the van. On closer inspection, we discovered a small calico kitten inside. Someone had abandoned her there with nothing but a wiener to eat and a stuffed toy for company! Not having the heart to just leave her there, we loaded the box with her inside into the van and I went back into the store for a few cat supplies. It looked like we had another addition to the family whether we wanted one or not! We arrived home with her about 12:30pm and the kids were thrilled to see her. She was a beautiful little kitten and she looked fat and healthy enough. We decided to call her Calli.
She was very quiet and not playful, but I contributed that to nervousness about her strange surroundings. She would drink water, but we couldn't get her to eat and when the dogs met her she just lay there and stared at them. I assumed that maybe there were dogs where she came from and that are why she wasn't afraid. By Monday morning, nothing much had changed. She wouldn't eat the dry food that I offered so I opened a can of food and tried to give her that. She wouldn't touch that either. She was a friendly little thing, purring when petted and she enjoyed being held and slept on my lap a lot. Monday evening, we noticed that she was breathing rapidly and her belly was still fat despite the fact of not having eaten since we found her the previous day. These combined things led me to believe that something was very wrong so I told the children that I would take her to the vet if she hadn't improved by the next morning.
Tuesday morning arrived with no change so I took her to see Dr. Parker at the animal hospital. She was very worried about the kitten because her belly was all swollen. She told me that she would have to take x-rays, do blood work, and that an overnight stay in the hospital for observation would be necessary. She gave me a pretty pricey estimate of the costs. With a heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I told her to go ahead with the tests even though the animal may die anyway. I just didn't have the heart to tell her to go ahead and euthanize the poor creature. I left Calli there and went home.
Later I got a phone call from Dr. Parker telling me that the animal was very critical. Her belly was swollen from fluids seeping into it from somewhere, but the x-rays showed nothing broken or out of place.
Her red blood cell count was very low, her white blood cell count was very high, and her temperature was only 95 degrees when it should have been 101 degrees. She said to call tomorrow afternoon to see how she was doing. When I called on Wednesday afternoon, the doctor said the kitten was showing much improvement. She had taken Calli home with her the night before to keep close watch on her. She was awakened in the middle of the night by a crunching sound and noticed that Callie was eating the cat litter! She said she'd never seen a cat do that before and didn't know why, but to replace her litter with shredded newspapers for a while. I was able to pick Calli up and bring her home that afternoon although she still wasn't out of the woods yet by any means.
When I got the kitten home, I set her up in a clothes basket lined with towels and put a hot water bottle (that I purchased solely for this purpose) in with her to keep her temperature up. The water bottle needed changing every 3 to four hours and I had to give her anti-biotic drops twice a day. The vet had given me a can of high protein cat food that I was to mix with water and feed to her through a syringe. The first few feedings had to be practically forced on the poor little thing and she would only take about a fourth of a syringe full before refusing any more food. She was defecating and urinating on the towels in the basket so they had to be changed frequently. As sick as the tiny thing was, she began to recognize me as her caretaker it seemed. Her eyes would follow me around the room and she purred happily whenever I stroked her fur. She love to lie on the hot water bottle and went to it and lay down immediately whenever I filled it and brought it back.
By Thursday even, she was starting to become excited when she saw me coming with the syringe of food and she would start to meow loudly if she had to go to the bathroom and I would put her in the cat box filled with shredded newspaper and she would use it and then be content again. She would nuzzle my neck and purr whenever I held her and my heart began to swell with affection and love for the tiny being. Friday was a great day! It seemed that Callie was improving more and more as time went by. She was taking a whole syringe full of food and then wanting more. She even started eating some crushed dry food that I kept in a Tupperware lid in her basket. I was thrilled to see her doing so great and I couldn't believe my eyes! Her belly started to grow fat again and I thought it as because of all the food she was consuming.
Saturday started out as usual. After I took care of Calli, we went out to do some Saturday errands. While we were out, we stopped by the animal hospital to buy a couple more cans of the food that the vet had given us for Calli. We wanted to make sure she had the best possible nutrition until she was better. We saw Dr. Parker there and told her how well Callie was doing and even made an appointment for her to come back in two weeks to be checked and to get her first shots. She was very surprised and happy and said she couldn't wait to see Calli again.
When we got home around noon, my daughter told me that Callie hadn't been asleep or lain down the whole time we were gone. I went to check on her and change her water bottle. She usually went to it immediately and lay down on it, but not this time. When I tried to feed her, she didn't eat very much. I decided to leave her alone awhile to let her rest. My brother came over to visit that afternoon and we spent a couple of hours talking with him. I checked on Callie a couple of times during those two hours and she still wasn't lying down. She only sat there and her breathing seemed to be a bit harder than usual. I was now really starting to worry about her. I started to stroke her fur like always trying get her to lie down and rest, but she would only sit there. Now, when I picked her up and she tried to purr, it sounded muted and broken. As sick as she was, she still tried to purr for me! But then she would meow and try to squirm away from me.
As I made dinner for my family, I contemplated on what to do. I wasn't hungry so after I served dinner to the kids; I called the animal hospital to try and reach Dr. Parker or someone. However, a machine that gave the number to a 24-hour emergency animal hospital 30 miles from our home answered the phone. Because there was nothing else to do, we called for directions and prepared Calli for the trip. I lined a carry kennel with towels and filled the hot water bottle for Callie to sit on so she wouldn't get cold and we took the long, emotional drive. I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks because I had a feeling of what was to come.
When we arrived at the hospital, I peeked into the kennel to check on Calli and she was calmly sitting on the hot water bottle, looking out at me, her breathing very labored now. When I took her out for the doctor to look at her, she meowed loudly and tried to squirm away. The vet looked at her gums and said they were very white; one of the signs of a disease (I forget the name of it now) that some kittens get that there is no cure for. He could run some tests to be sure, but it that was what was wrong; there was nothing that anyone could do for her. I decided to put Calli back in her kennel on the water bottle for a bit because the seemed very agitated and she always liked it there, but when I sat her on the bottle, she immediately fell over on side and let out the most horrible meowing sounds I had ever heard in my life! My blood ran cold and I began to cry even harder than I already was. For lack of knowing what else to do, I picked her up and handed her back to the doctor. He said that she was dying! He thought she was dead, but he heard a faint heartbeat with his stethoscope and said he would take her to try giving her oxygen but didn't think it would do any good.
Needless to say, I never saw her again. He came back shaking his head and told us that she was gone. My heart crumbled into a million pieces! My baby was dead. The one I cared for and nurtured to the best of my ability was gone forever.; dead. A part of me died with her that night. The sounds of her dying cries are forever branded into my memory. I felt empty, numb.
While we waited outside for them to tell us how much we owed them, a thought popped into my head out of nowhere. I decided I wanted to see Jan's kittens, even though I knew that I could never replace Calli in my heart, I knew of some other kittens that were in need of finding good homes. We decided to wait and talk about it later when our hearts and minds weren't so occupied by grief and loss. The long drive home was a silent one. Each of us was lost in our thoughts and shedding quiet tears. The task of telling the children loomed before us like a horrible, ugly monster waiting to be released from its cage.
This Sunday morning wasn't such a typical one. The girls were still preparing to leave for church and we were still getting ready to begin our usual Sunday errands, but with an unusual twist. We discussed it and decided to go have a look at Jan's kittens after all. We already had the cat supplies and Jan's kittens had been raised around dogs so getting one used to ours shouldn't be a huge problem. Besides, we had this huge void in our lives now that desperately needed to be filled. We didn't tell the children in case things didn't work out, but when they left for church, we headed over to Jan's house.
Jan's cat is a gray tabby and her five kittens ranged in color from two gray-striped like her, two black ones, and one light gray. I was looking for a female so I picked up the kittens one by one to inspect their gender and test their personalities. When I picked up the runt, a tiny solid black one, she began to purr. I held her close to me and she began to purr louder, nuzzling my neck. As I held her, a single word popped into my mind...Destiny. This tiny ball of fur would become my kitten and her name is Destiny!
When I think back upon all the previous events, I firmly believe that fate stepped in and it was meant for us to have a feline in our lives, our family. It seems that sometimes our lives have many twists and turns in the road, but in the end, you just cannot avoid what was meant to be! Destiny has now been with us for three days and already she has made her mark in our lives and in our hearts. She is cute and playful. Her antics make me smile and laugh out loud. She is lovable and cuddly. She even curls up and sleeps in our bed with us. She will never take over the special place that I have reserved for Calli in my heart, but she helps to fill the emptiness that was caused by her death. It may sound funny or even a bit crazy, but I would like to think that my Callie was an angel kitty sent down from heaven to earth to lead me to my Destiny....
I made a graphic that shows Calli and Destiny together. I hope you'll forgive the poor quality, but we had no digital camera at that time in 2001, so I had to scan some. We still have Destiny, although she is pretty old and cranky these days....lol.
footnote: The three kids mentioned in the story was because my niece was living with us at the time. I only have two children...lol
Destiny's Journey
It started out as a typical Sunday. The kids were leaving for church and we were preparing to go about our usual Sunday errands. First stop was Home Depot. On the way out, we bumped into a friend in the parking lot. We talked awhile and before the conversation ended, he mentioned that his cat had kittens and asked us if we wanted one. We both chimed in unison, "No way!" Another friend of ours, Jan, had offered us one of her kittens just the day before and we told her no thank you also. We already had enough living things in our house with three kids and two dogs! We said our goodbyes and headed for the next stop, the grocery store.
Out in the parking lot, with our bags loaded into the mini-van, we noticed a banana box in front of the van. On closer inspection, we discovered a small calico kitten inside. Someone had abandoned her there with nothing but a wiener to eat and a stuffed toy for company! Not having the heart to just leave her there, we loaded the box with her inside into the van and I went back into the store for a few cat supplies. It looked like we had another addition to the family whether we wanted one or not! We arrived home with her about 12:30pm and the kids were thrilled to see her. She was a beautiful little kitten and she looked fat and healthy enough. We decided to call her Calli.
She was very quiet and not playful, but I contributed that to nervousness about her strange surroundings. She would drink water, but we couldn't get her to eat and when the dogs met her she just lay there and stared at them. I assumed that maybe there were dogs where she came from and that are why she wasn't afraid. By Monday morning, nothing much had changed. She wouldn't eat the dry food that I offered so I opened a can of food and tried to give her that. She wouldn't touch that either. She was a friendly little thing, purring when petted and she enjoyed being held and slept on my lap a lot. Monday evening, we noticed that she was breathing rapidly and her belly was still fat despite the fact of not having eaten since we found her the previous day. These combined things led me to believe that something was very wrong so I told the children that I would take her to the vet if she hadn't improved by the next morning.
Tuesday morning arrived with no change so I took her to see Dr. Parker at the animal hospital. She was very worried about the kitten because her belly was all swollen. She told me that she would have to take x-rays, do blood work, and that an overnight stay in the hospital for observation would be necessary. She gave me a pretty pricey estimate of the costs. With a heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I told her to go ahead with the tests even though the animal may die anyway. I just didn't have the heart to tell her to go ahead and euthanize the poor creature. I left Calli there and went home.
Later I got a phone call from Dr. Parker telling me that the animal was very critical. Her belly was swollen from fluids seeping into it from somewhere, but the x-rays showed nothing broken or out of place.
Her red blood cell count was very low, her white blood cell count was very high, and her temperature was only 95 degrees when it should have been 101 degrees. She said to call tomorrow afternoon to see how she was doing. When I called on Wednesday afternoon, the doctor said the kitten was showing much improvement. She had taken Calli home with her the night before to keep close watch on her. She was awakened in the middle of the night by a crunching sound and noticed that Callie was eating the cat litter! She said she'd never seen a cat do that before and didn't know why, but to replace her litter with shredded newspapers for a while. I was able to pick Calli up and bring her home that afternoon although she still wasn't out of the woods yet by any means.
When I got the kitten home, I set her up in a clothes basket lined with towels and put a hot water bottle (that I purchased solely for this purpose) in with her to keep her temperature up. The water bottle needed changing every 3 to four hours and I had to give her anti-biotic drops twice a day. The vet had given me a can of high protein cat food that I was to mix with water and feed to her through a syringe. The first few feedings had to be practically forced on the poor little thing and she would only take about a fourth of a syringe full before refusing any more food. She was defecating and urinating on the towels in the basket so they had to be changed frequently. As sick as the tiny thing was, she began to recognize me as her caretaker it seemed. Her eyes would follow me around the room and she purred happily whenever I stroked her fur. She love to lie on the hot water bottle and went to it and lay down immediately whenever I filled it and brought it back.
By Thursday even, she was starting to become excited when she saw me coming with the syringe of food and she would start to meow loudly if she had to go to the bathroom and I would put her in the cat box filled with shredded newspaper and she would use it and then be content again. She would nuzzle my neck and purr whenever I held her and my heart began to swell with affection and love for the tiny being. Friday was a great day! It seemed that Callie was improving more and more as time went by. She was taking a whole syringe full of food and then wanting more. She even started eating some crushed dry food that I kept in a Tupperware lid in her basket. I was thrilled to see her doing so great and I couldn't believe my eyes! Her belly started to grow fat again and I thought it as because of all the food she was consuming.
Saturday started out as usual. After I took care of Calli, we went out to do some Saturday errands. While we were out, we stopped by the animal hospital to buy a couple more cans of the food that the vet had given us for Calli. We wanted to make sure she had the best possible nutrition until she was better. We saw Dr. Parker there and told her how well Callie was doing and even made an appointment for her to come back in two weeks to be checked and to get her first shots. She was very surprised and happy and said she couldn't wait to see Calli again.
When we got home around noon, my daughter told me that Callie hadn't been asleep or lain down the whole time we were gone. I went to check on her and change her water bottle. She usually went to it immediately and lay down on it, but not this time. When I tried to feed her, she didn't eat very much. I decided to leave her alone awhile to let her rest. My brother came over to visit that afternoon and we spent a couple of hours talking with him. I checked on Callie a couple of times during those two hours and she still wasn't lying down. She only sat there and her breathing seemed to be a bit harder than usual. I was now really starting to worry about her. I started to stroke her fur like always trying get her to lie down and rest, but she would only sit there. Now, when I picked her up and she tried to purr, it sounded muted and broken. As sick as she was, she still tried to purr for me! But then she would meow and try to squirm away from me.
As I made dinner for my family, I contemplated on what to do. I wasn't hungry so after I served dinner to the kids; I called the animal hospital to try and reach Dr. Parker or someone. However, a machine that gave the number to a 24-hour emergency animal hospital 30 miles from our home answered the phone. Because there was nothing else to do, we called for directions and prepared Calli for the trip. I lined a carry kennel with towels and filled the hot water bottle for Callie to sit on so she wouldn't get cold and we took the long, emotional drive. I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks because I had a feeling of what was to come.
When we arrived at the hospital, I peeked into the kennel to check on Calli and she was calmly sitting on the hot water bottle, looking out at me, her breathing very labored now. When I took her out for the doctor to look at her, she meowed loudly and tried to squirm away. The vet looked at her gums and said they were very white; one of the signs of a disease (I forget the name of it now) that some kittens get that there is no cure for. He could run some tests to be sure, but it that was what was wrong; there was nothing that anyone could do for her. I decided to put Calli back in her kennel on the water bottle for a bit because the seemed very agitated and she always liked it there, but when I sat her on the bottle, she immediately fell over on side and let out the most horrible meowing sounds I had ever heard in my life! My blood ran cold and I began to cry even harder than I already was. For lack of knowing what else to do, I picked her up and handed her back to the doctor. He said that she was dying! He thought she was dead, but he heard a faint heartbeat with his stethoscope and said he would take her to try giving her oxygen but didn't think it would do any good.
Needless to say, I never saw her again. He came back shaking his head and told us that she was gone. My heart crumbled into a million pieces! My baby was dead. The one I cared for and nurtured to the best of my ability was gone forever.; dead. A part of me died with her that night. The sounds of her dying cries are forever branded into my memory. I felt empty, numb.
While we waited outside for them to tell us how much we owed them, a thought popped into my head out of nowhere. I decided I wanted to see Jan's kittens, even though I knew that I could never replace Calli in my heart, I knew of some other kittens that were in need of finding good homes. We decided to wait and talk about it later when our hearts and minds weren't so occupied by grief and loss. The long drive home was a silent one. Each of us was lost in our thoughts and shedding quiet tears. The task of telling the children loomed before us like a horrible, ugly monster waiting to be released from its cage.
This Sunday morning wasn't such a typical one. The girls were still preparing to leave for church and we were still getting ready to begin our usual Sunday errands, but with an unusual twist. We discussed it and decided to go have a look at Jan's kittens after all. We already had the cat supplies and Jan's kittens had been raised around dogs so getting one used to ours shouldn't be a huge problem. Besides, we had this huge void in our lives now that desperately needed to be filled. We didn't tell the children in case things didn't work out, but when they left for church, we headed over to Jan's house.
Jan's cat is a gray tabby and her five kittens ranged in color from two gray-striped like her, two black ones, and one light gray. I was looking for a female so I picked up the kittens one by one to inspect their gender and test their personalities. When I picked up the runt, a tiny solid black one, she began to purr. I held her close to me and she began to purr louder, nuzzling my neck. As I held her, a single word popped into my mind...Destiny. This tiny ball of fur would become my kitten and her name is Destiny!
When I think back upon all the previous events, I firmly believe that fate stepped in and it was meant for us to have a feline in our lives, our family. It seems that sometimes our lives have many twists and turns in the road, but in the end, you just cannot avoid what was meant to be! Destiny has now been with us for three days and already she has made her mark in our lives and in our hearts. She is cute and playful. Her antics make me smile and laugh out loud. She is lovable and cuddly. She even curls up and sleeps in our bed with us. She will never take over the special place that I have reserved for Calli in my heart, but she helps to fill the emptiness that was caused by her death. It may sound funny or even a bit crazy, but I would like to think that my Callie was an angel kitty sent down from heaven to earth to lead me to my Destiny....
I made a graphic that shows Calli and Destiny together. I hope you'll forgive the poor quality, but we had no digital camera at that time in 2001, so I had to scan some. We still have Destiny, although she is pretty old and cranky these days....lol.
footnote: The three kids mentioned in the story was because my niece was living with us at the time. I only have two children...lol
Poor little thing. I don't know what I would have done I mean seeing her die... must be so sad
I could never watch my kitty die, no matter how much silly ole Riley meows and keeps me up at night! At least you got something good out of something bad, though 
I had forgotten how cute Destiny was when she was little...lol
There he is 
Yep, we certainly can get very attached to those little animals. I don't know what I'd do without my current favorite kitty, although she does get annoying at times!