Your Pet Loss Stories

'To My Beloved and My Companion Socky'

by Rose Hume
(Mystic Ct)

We got our cat Socky from my Mother-in-law's house. She was a stray cat because her former owners moved leaving her behind. She also was declawed which we found out is a very painful process cats suffer a lot from this.

She was a very loving cat, she would always keep me company on my bed and sometimes would sit on my lap. In the beginning when we first got her she didn't do those things. When I made myself something to eat she would always follow me into my bedroom to get some food to eat.

I loved her so much I didn't realize how much I loved her until I found out from the vet she had a tumor in her stomach and she had kidney disease. The vet wanted to put her to sleep that day but we decided to take her home with us. She was very thin and you could see the bones in her body sticking out but we weren't ready to let her go.

She ate her food and drank a lot of water due to her kidney disease, she still enjoyed going outside and stayed around our house. Sometimes she would follow my daughter out to her bus going as far as the sidewalk. I loved her so much. Maybe a month later I noticed a change in her it hurt so bad to see her that way it literally was breaking my heart, my beloved companion was slowly getting worse.

I wanted to put her down but my husband didn't think it was time and my daughter who is 15 years old who had trained her to do certain tricks didn't think it was time yet either. I cried when I looked at her because I could see her starting to slowly lose her battle, I couldn't stand it my beloved cat was suffering and it hurt a lot. Our cat who was part of our family was slowly leaving us.

One day she went outside and after 3 hours I didn't see her on our deck where she loved to sleep. I called her name and I could hear the leaves under the deck moving so I looked under the deck and I saw her trying to get up but her hind legs wouldn't hold her so I squeezed under the deck to get her realizing this was a good sign I picked her up and her mouth twitched and she passed away in my arms.

I couldn't stand it I walked inside our house holding her limp body and then I started to cry as the deep hurt of seeing her that way and I knew that was the last time I would see her. I cried so much I thought I would never stop. My daughter came home from horse back riding with my husband and she was upset, my son and my 17 year old daughter didn't show much emotion. My older daughter wasn't there at the time it happened and my 13 year old son didn't really care for our cat.

We wrapped her in a towel and we laid a light quilted sheet and we got a green soft liner that goes in a dogs bed and layed her inside and covered her. My daughter wanted to hold her for a short while to say good bye to her stroking her fur and looking at her. After she was done we buried her in the back yard.

I had written on paper for my memory of Socky of how much I was going to miss her but I was going to remember the good times we shared that did help me some. We stood for a short while outside and then went inside. We plan to get a headstone for her so we can go over to it and just remember how much she would be missed.