Your Pet Loss Stories

'She Came To Me For Help'

by Vicki Anderson
(Plugerville,Tx.)

Hello to you all. I am here again to tell you my heart wrenching story again just a few weeks since my last story of Gizzy dying from being attacked by a pit bulldog.

I only pray to the Lord that there will be no more death in our family for a long while. It is just too hard for this old heart to handle.

Today is Sunday, May 18th 2008. I buried my 3 year old feline "Trinket" yesterday.

Friday the 16th at just after 4pm, Trinket came into the house (live in a small farm house) meowing with that crying kind of meow that cats have. I was standing in the living room watching a stupid scene on the tv when I head her coming into the room.

I knew immediately something was wrong by the way she was talking. I watched as she came into the room towards me and she was limping favoring her left front leg. When she got close enough to me she just fell all the way down to the floor. I scooped her up frantic asking her what was wrong, what happened.

I took and put her on the couch to look at her to see what she had done. She had the most pitiful meows in fast succession of each other not loud, but kind of soft and whimpering. I couldn't see anything, no blood or nothing but when I would touch her front left paw she would let me know it hurt her a great deal.

So off we went to the vet I use here in town. We didn't have an appointment so we had to go in as an emergency. Trinket cried the whole way there without stopping.

Well they took her from me to look her over in the back. I had to wait in this room til they came in to tell me what was wrong with her. I don't remember if it was a tech. or the Doctor that came in and told me that they could not tell what was wrong but that she apparently had some kind of trauma. I told them to give her X-rays because there had to be something there serious. They did and brought them in to show me.

There were no broke bones that we could see. But she was not walking on this leg and holding it under her chest. He gave her a pain shot and told me anything could have happened like falling out of tree or something of that nature that caused her to hurt that leg. That sometimes they would over exaggerate their pain with their owner. I told him that she wasn't like that, that she was in a lot of pain.

I was sent home with enough pain meds for Trinket to get through the weekend if needed. And told to watch her and bring her back if she did not get any better. So I left with her, and my meds. She was still crying but not as intense like before.

I smoke and needed a cigerette really bad but had left mine at home when I left with Trinket. So I stopped at the convenience store that was a block down the street from the vet's office. Before I got out of the truck I was looking at Trinket and telling her that I would be right back. She meowed at me so pitiful.

I was looking at her and I noticed a kind of like crease in her fur on her left shoulder. I opened the carrier door and touched the spot that I was focusing on to seperate the fur to see the skin there. And there was a puncture hole. I closed the door and went in the store got my smokes but calling the vet back and telling them that I found a hole in Trinket's shoulder.

I was so mad because they were supposed to have checked her out all over just minutes ago. I found this hole just because the fur on her shoulder looked kind of weird to me. I remember screaming there is a hole in her shoulder. Then what she said next brought stars to my brain, she asked if I wanted to bring Trinket back on Monday.(today is Friday) I had no words for her so I just hung up. By now it was 15 minutes til 6pm when they close their office. They have about 4 Vets that work there. I was standing in the store still not believing what just went on and thinking to myself where was I going to be able to take Trinket to that would actually look at her and care enough to figure out what was wrong with her.

My phone rang and it was the vet's office calling me back. She was babbling on something about us getting cut off and getting nothing but silence from me. She asked me if I could get back there before 6 that there was another doctor still there. The doctor that saw Trinket was already gone. Even though it had only been 12 minutes since I was there. I told her yes already on my way.

They shaved Trinkets shoulder and found 2 punture wounds. They told me it looked like it was a dog bite and that it didn't look like it was that new. Like it may have happened a while ago. I told him there was no way that could be. He said how do you know? I told him because she didn't tell me. Anyway he sent me home with anti biotics this time. So I went home still not feeling right about their prognosis.

I wasn't suppose to give Trinket more pain meds until 10pm that night but I cheated and gave her more at 9pm. She was really doped up but not crying like she was. That made me feel better. I woke up at 3am and went to check on her, her sleeping and me giving her a little bit of water telling her how much I loved her. She was still really doped up.

I was up again at 6am checked on her and she had moved off her pillow bed and was just on the plastic of the big kennel I had her in. I had put a heating pad under her bed because her temperature was below normal when we were at the vet. I guess she got too warm and moved. As soon as she knew I was up and with her she started meowing softly but distressed. I gave her the anti biotics and more pain meds. The pain meds that they give to you in a syringe that you squirt between their cheek and tongue.

She didn't seem like she was any better at all in fact she seemed worse. She was swollen pretty bad on her shoulder and had started to bleed on the underside of it. Two spots had opened up and started bleeding. Back to the vet we go and we were the first ones in the building as soon as the doors opened. I was put with the vet that first looked at Trinket (look at her was about all he did, really looking her over like I feel he didn't do or he would have found the hole that I did at least.)

I was very sarcastic when he came in the room as I said seems you missed the holes in her shoulder yesterday. I told him that she was worse today and that I wanted her to be shaved the rest of her shoulder to see how much more damage was there. Already yesterday you could see all the bruising by the punture wounds that pursuaded me to believe that dogs could possibly of done this to her by shaking her.

They wanted to take her in the back to shave more hair off her but I wouldnt let them take her from me. I didn't want them to hurt her anymore than what she already was. The tech came in with the shaver but when she tried to shave hair off close around where the punture wounds were at, her skin started coming off. I mean the hair was staying on the skin and the skin was peeling away. She stopped immediately and left the room.

He comes back in the room and starts running down all the possible scenarios as to what's causing this on Trinket. Then he asked me if I had been seeing any spiders around like brown recluse. It hit me that this idiot didnt know what the heck he was talking about. I was so mad and stopped him in his long drawn out speech about what I knew had nothing to do with what was wrong with Trinket. I asked what about a "Rattlesnake bite?" He instantly said that is what I was thinking and I would like to get blood from her to see her platelets or something like that.

Well to make a still long story a little shorter I had to go to the emergency hospital for animals being as it was Saturday and everyone was closed. They tried to save Trinket with the anti venom but it was too late. She had gone too long without treatment to fight this battle. They sent me home with the assumption that she was going to stay overnight for sure and that I could call anytime to see how she was doing. I did call an hour after I left her there and they told me that Trinket needed blood and that their tech Jessica had gone home to get her cat to donate blood for Trinket.

Two minutes after I hung up the Doctor called me and said that Trinket lost her fight. I told her that I was on my way back to get her. They brought out this neatly squared with black duct tape package out to hand to me . My heart was being torn into so many pieces and I started pulling the tape off the soft little towel thing that I thought she was wrapped in. But I only found a dark trash bag that was wound into a nice neat little circle with the opening tied into a knot under that soft towel that I thought Trinket was wrapped in. I finally got to Trinket balled all up in the trash bag and pulled her out.

I felt so bad for her cause she fought so hard. I did what I thought I was suppose to do and was let down by the ones that were suppose to know what they were doing. I brought Trinket home and buried her next to Gizzy. My soul is tired now too tired to be mad at anybody anymore. This has been a lesson learned at Trinket's expense.

Thanks for hearing my story, with God willing, there will be no more for a long time. Goodnight Trinket, Mama loves you so much and I'm so sorry I coudn't fix you. I'm so sorry you had to go through so much pain. I know you are not hurting anymore. Mom will see you later.

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