Your Pet Loss Stories

by Sherlyn
(Louisiana, USA)

Last week I lost my baby cat Chila. I had found him at the trash dump so some of my family called him my trash dump cat. But they misunderstood how much I love him. This is his story.

He was about 5 weeks old when I met him. I had gone to dump the trash. We live in a rural area. This little black cat came up to me meowing. He wasn't hungry because a man always put out huge bags of cat food every day or so for the feral cats. I picked him up and put him in the car just holding him. He instantly grabbed the steering wheel like he wanted to leave with me. But I said if he was there the next day I would take him home. He was so our 6 year journey began.

The next day I took him to the vet. She looked at him and said he had the worst case of ringworms she had ever seen. So I bathed him every other night for six weeks until he no longer had them. This is how he learned to love a bath. At that point I knew we were best friends. Silly adventures began. From then on when we went camping he went camping. He's the first cat I ever knew that would ride in or out of a carrier. It was hilarious when I would drive up to the Sonic window with a black cat on my shoulder.

Chila was an inside cat. He had to get used to me leaving for work. He would stand at the door and yelp until I came in. But he finally learned to chill out and wait. Night time was a silly time for sure. He took to knocking on my bedroom door so he could come in and sleep next to me. He loved to have a paw over my leg. He would begin a game we called one tail bat bat. He would swat me with his tail and I would tap his tail back. On and on this went for usually 10 minutes or so.

To make a long story short he had always had trouble with food. The only food that did not give him trouble he hated. 2 weeks ago he stopped eating completely. After 2 days of this I took him to the vet. He did not have diabetes but for some reason his kidneys had shut down. He was just shy of 6 years old... way too young. He was hospitalized over the weekend then sent home with IV fluids and pills. At that time he still ate.

After a week of the fluids and pills he completely stopped eating and drinking. Weakness took over. And he went over the Rainbow bridge. I have not stopped crying since. My life is so changed. I miss him with every once of my being.