Have you ever kept a vigil?

I’m sorry to hear about your cat :/

Why not make up a bed for her next to your own, rather than in the bathroom? You put her in the bathroom to keep the dog away from her, right? Why not keep the dog in a separate room instead? You have kids, right? Let the dog stay in one of the kids rooms, maybe?

Because my bed is high, high up and the door to the room doesn’t close. The dogs would beat their way in. I don’t have any place else to put the dogs (kids are grown and gone, but their rooms were upstairs and have since been converted).....I have her bed close to a heater vent. Close to water.

Ahh I see. If it is her time, it sounds like you’ve done all you can to make it a peaceful transition for her. Best wishes, Val.

After my sister had surgery when she was a teenager I stayed in bed next to her and watched her sleep. Wanted to make sure she was ok.

Sorry about your cat :(. My mom sat vigil with one of our cats for several hours as he took his last breaths, it was really difficult for her.

thank you guys….

Awww..poor Smokes. Yes, I have kept many vigils for pets over the years. Including my kitty that was euthanized last summer and I was on hospice care with him for a month. My old granny goose that was crippled and I carried her around for months from the sun to the shade to her pool and to her barn.

The most intense was the vigil I kept with my good friend and neighbor when her horse was dying. We stayed with him all night next to his pre-dug grave. Getting a dead horse out of a barn is no easy task, and it is so sad to have to drag them out with chains and a tractor, sooo, we stayed with Rusty next to his grave til the vet came to euthanize him the next morning and he could just be rolled into the grave. Waaah!

What’s wrong with Smokes? Just old and failing? So sorry, it’s so hard to lose our little friends. :-(

Yes. WIth Treasure, our last cat. And Spoony THE Cat is no spring chicken. She’s a gray old lady now. I know all too well that day will come for her, probably before me. I feel your pain. Wishing Smokes a comfortable departure to whatever comes next.

Playing with my Myles before bed…sad for you and Smokes.

Sad to hear about your cat @Dutchess_III. I hope she passes peacefully while sleeping.

Oh, I’m so sorry about your kitty. We lost our cat, Katy, last August after a long illness. My husband was with her when she went. You’re doing everything you can to keep her comfortable, girlie. <3

Sorry to hear about your cat. I hope her passing is peaceful and painless.

No, I haven’t. I’ve never had pets so it’s hard for me to truly imagine losing one, but apologies nonetheless.

I have one of you…........Don’t ask where I got the pictures.

I’m sorry about your cat. I lost mine just over two years ago now, and I still miss her.

I’ve not had to deal with waiting for a pet but I will soon as my mom’s dog is getting on in years. The most painful vigil I’ve had to face was my mother’s short decline to death. I was terrified to leave the hospital. I didn’t want her to die alone.

My thoughts are with you. Losing anyone/anything to death is hard, hard, hard.

Yes. I haven’t done it for living breathing things, though.

Best wishes for you & your kitty

Knock, knock @Dutchess_III is smokes still alive, let us know how you’re doing? :-)

@Coloma Sorry…We lost her Saturday afternoon. I just didn’t feel like being here on Fluther.
I don’t know how she hung on for so long. She just kept breathing. You know, I walked in Friday morning and I thought she was gone…but she was still breathing. Her paws were sooooo cold. But….as I petted her and talked to her you could see her strength returning. She could even still swish her tail! But other than that she couldn’t move. That afternoon we took her out on the deck to sit in the sun with us, and you could just feel her spirit being a little stronger. She passed away the next afternoon, on the warm, heated waterbed.

I want to share pictures with you but Photobucket won’t upload my pictures. Maybe later. But thank you for the thoughts guys. She was 16 years old. She was the link between my old life, when I divorced my ex, and my new. I will really, really miss her.

FINALLY got pics to upload.

I don’t believe in pretending someone was something they weren’t, just because they died. Smokers..was MEAN!! She had my Dutchess Dawg scared to DEATH! The poor dog would break her neck trying to get away if Smokers was in sight!

About a year after my beloved 15-year-old dog, Snuffy died, in 1995 I went looking for a cat. I could NOT find any free ads. I checked the shelters. They wanted too much money. Finally I stood in the middle of a QT and yelled, “Does anyone know where I can find some free kittens?????” For some reason everyone looked at me like I’d gone mad…except for one guy who told me he’d seen a free kitten sign in someone’s yard.

I went there…it was a dilapidated, falling down old house. When I knocked on the door two Rotties hit that door, HARD. Finally an old lady came out with a box that had 5 kittens and the momma cat. She asked me to take them all. I couldn’t. I just picked one. Smokie.
She was only about 5 weeks old, and from the look of it she’d spent the first 5 weeks of her life being absolutely terrorized. Abused people can be mean, and mean she was!

She was was so tiny that for a couple of weeks she’d sleep on the top of one of those old, rectangular digital clocks. It was warm.

She also started “nursing” on the web between my thumb and forefinger. That’s a habit she never broke. She just moved on to my arm when she got bigger! I’d let her, until her teeth started sinking into my skin and I’d pull away and she’d hiss at me and run away! I used to call her “Ye Auld Witch!”

She loved me though. Which meant she wasn’t as mean to me as she was to everyone else. :) She’d sleep with me…she’d literally wrap her “arms” around my neck and we’d fall asleep like that.

When I had the window open and I was sitting on the couch in front of it, reading, she’d jump up on the back of the couch and look outside, slapping me in the face with her tail the whole time! So I’d pull it a little, which made her slap harder! Eventually I’d give it a pretty good yank and she’d…hiss and run away! Pretty sure she enjoyed hitting me in the face with her tail because she did it every chance she got. :)

When Rick slept in my bed for the first time, Smokie was, apparently, pretty damned upset! No one had ever slept in that bed except her and me. Rick woke up in the middle of the night to Smokie sitting on his chest. He said he was staring into a pair of HUGE green eyes. He said, “Hi Smokes.” and reached up to pet her…and she let him have it, right across the face!!!
But they quickly made up, especially since he gave her bits of food off of his plate.

She was my pal. And I miss her

She sounds like quite the character. The best kind of friend of any species @Dutchess_III.

Thank you @Bellatrix.

Thanks for sharing, @Dutchess_III. Loved the pic of her coming up behind the dog.

@Dutchess_III My deepest condolences. Spoony’s hair is a bit longer, but their coloring and markings are identical down to the green eyes and the age.

I’m so sorry, @Dutchess_III. Sounds like she had a lovely life with you. {hugs}

Awww…what great memories. I know, nothing harder than losing our little furry friends. They bring such joy into our lives. RIP Smokes. :-(

@Coloma Actually, it’s more like Smokies RIPping! As “mean” as she was, she always came home.

Thank you guys. It was really, really hard.

So sorry to hear about your kitty : (

Thanks @Kardamom. It was her time.