Tag Archives: Cats

Drew Brees June 2008-June 19, 2021

Posted on Saturday June 19th, 2021 by Pauline | Comments Off

Drew Brees June 2008- June 19, 2021

ToRn’s buddy……my baby….is no longer in pain.

It was a good thing that they got him in today….took a bad turn in the last 36hrs.

But this post is about what an awesome cat Drew was.

When we first got Drew and Sakura, we worked from home in the office upstairs. I would carry him up and down the stairs with me. Until ToRn asked me if his legs were broken…LOL

He is the only cat that we were able to hold like a baby…..he would sleep for hours curled up like a baby in my lap as I worked. His fangs were so long that I would call him vampire kitty…lol

We would be able to carry him on our shoulders without him using his claws. He trusted us so much to just carry him. We were able to carry and move him around so much with the trust he had in us.

ToRn would call to him and hold his arms out and Drew would jump into them purring up a storm. Drew would stand on his shoulders.

Loved it when he use to go against the wall and do “upside down butt” LOL

Our first Xmas with Drew and Sakura was the last one that we had an artificial tree. Now, keep in mind that I’ve had this tree for 15 years with 4 other cats…never had an issue.

I had gone out to Indiana, the 2nd week of Dec to visit family and while on the phone with me, ToRn had eyes staring out at him from the tree at eye level. Well, ToRn is 6’2”….so they were pretty high up there.

They keep getting into the tree and making a mess that ToRn just put the tree in the downstairs half bath for me to deal with when I got home…..he is not a Xmas fan, that is all me…lol

When he encountered our friend’s german short hair, he would just look at her and she would not meet his eyes and back down.

I remember us hearing something from downstairs, we get down there and our hanging plant is swinging like crazy and dirt on the floor. Drew was on the floor just looking at us, like what? He had to have jumped a good distance from the counter. We never knew Drew could fly…..lol

I had never had a cat that would try and wake me up to let them under the covers like he did. He would paw at the blankets, if that didn’t work, I would sometimes open my eyes to his paw on my nose, or him hissing at me to wake me up…..lol

When we were in the king size, he got a whole portion to himself. It use to drive ToRn nuts how much I would go out the way not to disturb Drew when I had get out of bed for a potty call…..lol

He would talk to us on all the time, until last year. You would tell him no and he would talk back. Sometimes, he would just stand there and do his “roar” for no reason. It always reminded me of him trying to be a lion…lol

When we were down in AZ at the wildlife preserve, he was doing his meow “roars” and all of the sudden we heard this howl. It was a coyote near by, startled the hell out of us…..especially Drew….LOL He was like wth??

ToRn always claimed that when I left, he would call meow “mommie”. He was my baby, ToRn would say he was spoiled, I would say he was just very well loved. And he is sorely missed. =(

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Last Day……

Posted on Saturday June 19th, 2021 by Pauline | Comments Off

0928 Sat 19 June 2021

The vet got us in at 1130. On one hand we are grateful for more time with Drew, on the other the wait is horrible. I went to bed last night, hoping that Drew would pass on his own during the night.

I’ve been trying to distract myself the whole time. Getting things done around the house…..didn’t do my weekly errands or gym…..I may do the gym afterwards to distract myself…..thinking I need the physical effort to get my mind off of crying all day.

I’m currently an emotional wreck….doesn’t help that we have Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on….that one always gets me.

At work yesterday when I informed folks why I was not doing well, I tried to state it briefly and move on. For those who offered sympathy, I just started tearing up and almost broke down, especially on the hugs. Did that on and off through out the day.

He wasn’t doing too good when we made the decision Thursday night, but I noticed since we made the decision, he has gotten even worst, quickly….

His food intake went down yesterday, but eating….today, won’t even lick the turkey meat, won’t touch any of the cat nip that we have piled up all around the place. He is not making it to the litter box and is very dehydrated. Before today, he followed me all over the apartment, just to be near me……not cuddling, but there on the floor….and now can’t even get a purr. =(

I think the enlarging of the lump on this throat, that has spread to his cheek, has made it harder for him to eat….the meds quit working on the swelling about a month ago.

It confirms that we made the right decision for today, but wonder if we should’ve done it last week. I really thought it would happen during my vacation week.

Neither ToRn nor I are over how quickly we lost Sakura, and we can still see her in Drew’s face and tail. When we talked about it the other night, I told him that maybe having the extended time we had with Drew will help us with unexpected lost of his sister in Dec.

No matter how painful this is…..I can’t go without cats and I want even more.

We have just over an hour before we leave for the vet………

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Vacation’s End

Posted on Saturday June 12th, 2021 by Pauline | Comments Off

Uuuggghhhh……this week has gone by way too fast.

I really don’t want it to be over with and back to work Monday…..it is too soon….I still have so much I want to get done, while having a few more chilled out days.

I did get a lot done, nearly all of what I wanted to get done. There is only a few more things I would like to get done. It felt good to get a good portion accomplished.

Even when my 2 days are off together, there isn’t enough time, because I want one day not do a damn thing, then a day to get stuff done around the house….but that day is usually getting ready for the next week. Making the lunches, getting clothes ready and all that…..puts a killer on things.

I’ve throughly enjoyed being back at the gym, even though it is going to be a while before I’m back up to what I was doing before it closed. I got 6 days in this week……forced myself to take a day off since my calves were still sore. Wanted to push through, but worried about doing more damage. Damn, do I love seeing the calories burned…grin

I’m just not ready to try and figure out what to have for next week’s work lunches and then spend Sunday getting them together….uugghhh

I wish I had been able to head out to Indiana to visit family, but on the other hand glad I stayed home to spend time with Drew. I am actually surprised that Drew is still eating, purring and demanding. I really did not expect him to, but he is still walking like normal, just laying down a lot more.

Like I was telling ToRn the other day, on one hand I’m glad that Drew is still with us and do not want to let him go, but on the other hand I keep looking for signs that it is time because I don’t want him to suffer, but don’t want to have to make the decision. We both would like to come home and found that Drew to have made the decision for us.

We would never give up having cats, but we hate it when we have to make the decision to let them go to the rainbow bridge.

I did have some chill out time today, which was very nice.

I also played around with the scanner and scanned some old pictures and uploaded them to one of my FB albums. That was pretty cool. I was having some major flashbacks…lol

I want to do some pictures from my grandparents album of my parents wedding and their first couple of years. That would be cool

After almost 3yrs at this apartment, I have us the best prepared to deal with this years heat. Two ACs and a few more fans all set up.

I won’t hide that I’m concerned about this summer, with the drought we are having here in Oregon. We are currently getting some rain now, but no where near enough and after last year’s fires, I’m a little concerned.

I did go through our fire safes that we would take with us for evacuation, but we need to get prepared. I’ll look up the tips from the state and work on some of that next weekend.

I did treat myself this week, got my hair colored to bright copper red and had my first pedicure in about 9yrs. That was relaxing as hell.

Need to get up early tomorrow, get back into part of my morning routine. Need to get our fresh veggies & fruits for the week, fill up the Jeep and get lunches done after the gym.

This week is going to be different, been a few weeks since I did exercise before work…..need to get my timing down so I’m not late….lol I’ve been sleeping in until 0335, for the 3 days of gym before, I’ll be getting up by 0215….means no more staying up until 2000……lol

And on that note, I need to get to bed

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Days Off & Drew Update

Posted on Tuesday May 25th, 2021 by Pauline | Comments Off

We had the last 4 days off. We got a few things done around the house, I got shopping done Sunday. Spent time together binge watching Star Trek Discovery, it was nice. I really enjoyed it and would like more. =)

It really made me missed from when we use to work from home.

Really not wanting to go in tomorrow….lol And I’ve done everything to not think about work the last 4 days.

We are major home bodies, once we are home.

Unlike the majority of the country, other than social distancing, masks, and no gym our personal lives hadn’t changed.

We were very lucky that covid didn’t cost us our jobs, but in many ways it added so much more stress…..between losing co-workers at times due to medical emergences/scares, and increase business at work, we never had our normal winter slow down to catch our breath. Just seems never ending busy….especially with staffing shortages.

The really reason for today’s writing is an update on our baby Drew.

When I took him in to the specialist in Jan, the vet stated that most aggressive treatment for his lymphoma, would include surgery and chemo would cost $600-$900 a week for 2-3 months and in his experience, the cats he treated only lasted 4 months.

Well, no way we could afford that and, even if we could, we won’t want to put him through all that, be miserable and then lose him. We wanted quality.

So we were given a steroid for pain management and to help reduce that lump at his throat. I loved when that lump was no longer obvious. Felt like we got some of him back

It also increased his appetite. Just so I know how he is eating and making sure he gets nutrition, I’ve been feeding him prescribed wet food, twice a day. With the high calorie food and the appetite increase, our skinny cat actually got a small belly.

He also knew something was up, we allowed him human food for the first time. He became very demanding….in the kitchen as soon as I was in there….lol

Well, it has been over 5 months since the specialist vet and his lump is coming back, he is still eating, the belly is still there, but his backend has lost what little he had.

I’ve increased his dosage, just want to make sure that it helps with his pain and if it can reduce that lump at all, I’ll take it.

He still purrs like crazy when brushing, he demands it…..not playing like he was a few months ago, when we were alone without the other 2 kitties. He’ll go and bop the heck out of Anastasia and Gimli and make them back down. He is not getting that glazed look….his looks are more of why are you not feeding/petting me. He is still settling next to me in bed, but as ToRn and talked the other day, we don’t have much time left with our Drew Brees. He will be 13 in June…..we are just taking one day at time, but time is getting short and we are lucky it has been over 5 months.

It doesn’t help that we just lost his sister, Sakura, very quickly last Dec and sometimes if he looks a certain way, he reminds me of her. I can’t always handle pictures of her, because I keep wondering what if…..she is first that we had lost so quickly. So I know that neither of us have recovered from her lost.

Our other four babies, we knew when it was coming. It helped to make the pictures bitter sweet and but don’t make me feel that I had failed them….we knew we did the right thing, even though it hurts like you are ripping out your heart.

Anastasia and Gimli make us laugh…..that helps a lot.

Gimli is such goof ball. He may out weigh his sister, but she jumps without an issue and does not back down…lol They are both loud at meowing at us when they want something…..holy cow, sometimes it sounds so pathetic as if we never feed them…lol We feel sorry for our neighbors below us, our cats are loud when they are chasing each other…lol

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Our Baby Girl Sakura

Posted on Saturday December 5th, 2020 by Pauline | Comments Off

Our “Monster”, our baby girl, our pretty girl is gone.

I can’t believe it…..

We’ve been trying to will it that it wasn’t going to happen…we took hope that other’s kitties lasted longer with kidney disease.

She was at stage 4 and last 3-4 weeks we’ve been syringe feeding her the kidney food and giving her fluids. But the last 2 – 3 weeks, she wasn’t even going for her favorite non-vet food. She would lick the juices and that was it…..last 2-3 days, won’t even do that. She was occasionally drinking water, but no where near enough and we don’t remember the last time she was in litter box. She use to up to #12, she was down to #7.5

Vets don’t try and tell you what to do when it comes to this…..they question you to make sure that you’ve thought it through. And when you are telling them what you saw and know, you know that you are making the right decision, even though you are 2nd guessing yourself because you don’t want it to be true, you want the vet to say they help get them through it. The questions were very annoying, but the vet we were seeing had to take a medical and this one didn’t know us or the case, otherwise I don’t think she would’ve questioned so much.

I believe the feedings helped keep her going, it helped to keep her personality. She still growled and swiped at the other kitties if they got to close, still demanded to be held in ToRn‘s arms at night after staring at the back of his head him to turn over or nose him in the middle of the night…….she got more cuddle time with him then I did. She was very much a daddy’s girl….very spoiled, never got in trouble doing the same thing Drew got in trouble for.

She growled and swiped at Gimli one last time before we left, we had her purring while we waited, her tail was even puffed up when we held her to say good bye.

She was a very unique cat.

When we first got her, we used to use clay litter and the 1st week I went to change it, I found poo in the open new bags of litter…..baby girl had found the fresh stuff.

The timing of when we got Sakura and Drew couldn’t have been better in 2008. We lost Reggie (our part Maine Coon former barn cat of Mom & Dad’s) a few months later, we lost ToRn’s brother Diesel the following summer and then we lost Alexis (the 1st kitty we got together) within a year of that….if it wasn’t for Sakura and Drew getting into things and making us laugh, we won’t have made it through it with our sanity intake.

She never liked her brother Drew….she would start a fight with him and then run to ToRn because she knew that he would keep Drew from getting back at her. Even last week, she was laying on me in bed and Drew won’t lay near me because she was there and she had growled at him.

Never seen a cat puff up for no reason….you just look at her and her tail would be as fluffy as a raccoon’s. Her eyes looked almost crossed eyed when she would go nose to nose with you. When she laid on her back, looked like a baby seal. She would purr so loud, it sounded as if she would blow a gasket. I’ve never seen a kitty that had coloring like that…..so black on the top coat and white underneath.

After she got out of the house for 24hrs when she was about 9 months, any time she looked out a window and saw humans she would growl at them. ToRn loved that. She got better since we did the RV thing for a few years….learn to get use to seeing people outside of the windows.

She killed 1, possibly 2 mice when living in Troutdale….1 confirmed kill, the other could be Drew’s…..but that is debate between us on that one. I woke up to the first one…..went to the bathroom at 0600, saw her laying on the carpet, purring as loud as could be….looking proud, saw that mouse, thought it was one the toys, went back to bed, laid there for about 5 mins thinking and realizing, that was no damn toy. Sure enough, when I moved the carpet it had a white belly with blood down it…..lol

She corned 3 mice in the RV that I had to catch. She couldn’t make my life easier and just kill them….eye roll.

I’ve been losing it on and off, missing the hell out of her…..and until we get her ashes back, I won’t get any sense of closure and be filled with anxiety that she isn’t back at home.

Love you Sakura, you will be greatly missed.