(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



A gentle farewell to our beloved cat, Little Darby. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-01-10  

Pepper, Mullica and Darby on our deck in Ohio. The Little Darby Creek is obscured by trees in the background.

I have been unable to write about this for several days but now feel there is an important reason to share the experience of his passing. Before I elaborate on Little Darby’s life, I want to mention the way he passed because I believe others in this community might benefit from the information. Darby had advanced kidney disease and a thickened bowel that was not allowing him to absorb nutrients from his food. Mr. Trouble, a retired nurse anesthetist, had been keeping him going by administering subcutaneous lactated Ringer’s solution supplied by our vet. We were also giving him an oral steroid and an appetite stimulant. In spite of feeding him several times a day, he continued to get thinner and thinner. His muscles were wasting and he had been fading for weeks before we made the heart breaking choice to euthanize him. Thankfully, Mr. Trouble had made arrangements to have an in home vet service called, Home with Dignity that arrived within 3 hours of our call. If you have access to this organization or another service like it I highly recommend it. Jessica, a caring VMD, immediately put Darby and us at ease while she carefully explained everything she would be doing and what we should expect at each stage of the process. We were able to pet and soothe him on our bed during the final several minutes of his life. I am crying as I write this but it was so much better than what we had gone through several times in the past.

Little Darby was a wonderful boy who came into our yard from Little Darby Road along the Little Darby Creek in Ohio. We no longer live there but another cat adopted us during our stay. In the picture above, Darby is on the right and Pepper, the other Ohio cat is on the left. Our oldest in the middle is Mullica from Mullica Hill NJ who also adopted us by walking into our yard and insisting he was ours. Darby was the comedian of the house and the most playful of the three. He was often batting a ball around or getting hold of things that were not actually toys such as socks and hair ties and shooting them under the furniture. Visitors were often blindsided by Darby suddenly appearing out of nowhere and jumping on their lap. If it wasn’t closed tightly, Darby would leap into the bathroom door opening it up for all the world to see. The picture below is an example of why we have not put up a Christmas tree in many years.

He loved to be on my desk where I am usually using the computer. He would start by stepping on the keyboard, opening or closing windows I had up, then snoofing my coffee or sticking his nose in the tissue box while sending papers to the floor. The chaos he caused used to sometimes annoy me but I would give anything if he were here now typing extra characters into this diary. While his energy levels diminished significantly toward the end he continued trying to jump on things. I still had many tender interactions with him right up to his last moments. When we cuddled he would reach his paws out to “hold hands” with me. Though I am devastated by his passing, I know in my heart he enjoyed every last day on this earth. Peace.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/10/2146425/-A-gentle-farewell-to-our-beloved-cat-Little-Darby

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/