She's always been the chow hound here, my fat cat. I free feed, with so many, so I could never limit her food intake.
Once I built an indoor cage, just for her, hoping I could confine her, get her to exercise in it, control her intake, but it just didn't work out.
She came from a Millersburg trailer. The people living there got arrested for drugs and never came back. Their dogs got locked in the trailer but they kicked the cats out, including young ones. By the time I got involved, some were really starved and the young ones had turned wild.
Oci stayed here, a feral girl, young adult, half starved and with a bad herpes infection clouding one eye. Sam is from the same place. He was a tame adult when kicked out though.
So that was over 12 years ago. I guess Oci was maybe 13 or so, but I don't know for sure. Sam is a little older.
She was grossly overweight her entire life. She couldn't believe all the food here and never stopped eating. At her last vet visit, where she got the works including some teeth pulled, I asked the vet how it could be she didn't have diabetes having been so fat all her life. Just lucky, the vet said. Her luck ran out last night.
After refusing her favorite food, Fancy Feast, she went out to the cat yard. I found her in a shelter out there dead this morning.
So long Oci. Loved your fiesty spirit, girl. You did things your way.
Her best friends here, and almost every cat was her friend, but she didn't like people, were Fantasia, Soloman, Panda and Nemo. All four of her best friends were black and white like her.
So long Oci. And hooray for a cat who lives life (and dies) on her own terms. I can remember a cat of my mother's who ate his dinner, slugged his sister and ate hers, belched and fell over dead. An entirely appropriate death. And yes he was missed. Including by the sister whose food he stole on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteEC that's so funny, sounds exactly like Oci! Not a bad end for either, was quick. She didn't get diabetes but her heart got her in the end. But after a good long life here with many many friends. And....all the food she could eat.
DeleteOkay, EC made me laugh in spite of your sad discovery, my dear. ~hugs~ Thank you so much for giving her a good life.
DeleteHer! She looks like a boy cat. No, I take that back. She does look like a girl cat. Not funny but interesting the way cats go away to die. Bye bye Oci.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was strange. She'd come out like she wanted to eat that night, then flopped on her side and let out a cry, so I went over to her. But she hissed at me. She climbed up the cat stairs to the table, laid there, seemed distressed. I put some Fancy Feast in a dish near her. She began to stress purr, then went out from the table into the cat run, that leads to the cat yard. And that was last I saw her alive.
DeleteAs for dying alone, I want to die alone. I rarely see people and I can't imagine the stress it would cause me, struggling with end of life, to have a bunch of people, strangers with their own issues, trying to resolve them as they watch me die. That would really suck.
DeleteGoodbye, Oci. To a cat who knew what she wanted and went and got it.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely was Oci, L and L.
DeleteI am so sorry for the loss of your beautiful girl.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you lost another feline friend.
ReplyDelete