Your Pet Loss Stories

'Jazzy Bear'

by Phoebe
(Township Of Edwardsburg/Cardinal, Ontario, Canada)

I don't feel like moving anywhere. Last month I would have said different and now I may have to abandon something important to me. Some people may not find it important but I do. Upon thousands and thousands of animals go missing every year and many are never found. I may not have lost a child or know what that feels like, but I still lost something important to me and something I love.

Her name is Jasmine. She is a five year old medium sized fluffy grayish cat with light touches of brindle throughout her fur with a tiny little face and I love her to pieces. She has been missing since late July and I don't know where she is. People can say "Oh cats wander they will come back" thing is I don't have time. I don't have a year, I don't have a few months to wait for her return. I only have 1 week tops to find her or I'll never see her again. She could very well be dead. But I don’t want to think of that. I want to keep a strong open mind but I feel that time is going to have the best of me and pass so fast I wont have any time to find her.

The horrifying thoughts of where they could be is endless. And to leave a soul that you unconditionally love behind in another place than where you are leaving to is the worst feeling in the world.

I know not everyone may share my thoughts on how animals can become your adopted children but like children they also require special care, supervision and unconditional love. They are another species, but they have a heart, a soul and a will to survive just like humans.

I have considered that maybe my Jasmine could have been found, taken in and adopted by a family who now love her and that is not the worst feeling in the world as long as she is okay. If that were the situation I would greatly appreciate their dedication to helping her.

However there are always people giving away a free kitten or puppy to take home and love and so is the local neighbor or friend. And the local shelters and pounds are filled with beautiful souls whom need homes too.

I really would love MY Jasmine back home because you see, I have a history with her, I grew memories with little Jazzy, and Jasmine grew memories with us. She has had so many bad experiences and has conquered them all. Every cat has a special story, and Jasmine’s is no exception.

Jasmine was born somewhere in the summer of 2008 from a mother cat whom I like to call “Fancy”. Her mother Fancy was born with a cleft lip and has had trouble feeding when she was a kitten but soon after hand feeding her myself grew quite fond of the world of food.

When Fancy was a few years old, she got pregnant. The thing is we didn’t know she was pregnant because she never really gained any extra weight. She ate everything I ate including spaghetti, peas, spinach and watermelon! I never knew the reason. We switched her cat food but she liked human food? And then one night sometime in October, Fancy dropped a tiny little kitten in the middle of the hallway in our house. Thankfully mom was in the kitchen and yelled to me "Fancy just had a baby!” I clearly was surprised.

Jasmine was a little tiny gray kitten, the only one born. Jasmine lay there, being the only kitten, she was also a runt. You could hold her in the palm of your hand. Just like her mother growing up, Jasmine had quite the appetite. She liked odd human food though she would of course eat her kitty food also.

Jasmine is a fighter. And one of the first evidences of this is when she was around a year 1/2 old, we used to have to watch her because she was so small and we lived in the country where there is many potential predators like foxes and eagles. We would put her on a well fitted harness and watch her as she played outside. We had our first scare with Jasmine one day when she got off her leash. The more scary part was that she had been wearing her harness, and knew that was a high threat to her survival if she didn’t return the same day.

She didn’t return that day, nor the next. After about two ½ weeks calling her and searching the surrounding areas, there was no sign of Jasmine.

I honestly felt I would never see her again. Then around a week later at about 1:30 in the morning my father was putting the dog out for a pee and out of nowhere, a little scrawny grayish cat runs in the house…with her harness still in tact! I could not believe the miracle. And I was so overjoyed to have my little cat back considering all the bad weather we were having with rainstorms the weeks she had been missing, but she was okay, mostly scared.

That was the very first time being scared for Jasmine. One of the second times I have ever been scared for her was soon after she returned we discovered that she was pregnant. Of course we were planning to get her fixed but we never expected her to get away. So we took her to the vet to get her checked over and to make sure she could have the babies safely. She was half the size of another cat so problems could ensue. Her stomach was almost bigger than she was. I knew as long as we were with her she would make it. She was a real trooper! And she ended up having five little babies. Unfortunately, two of her five babies didn’t make it through.

Jasmine’s other kittens however were healthy and full of energy and were adopted. Jasmine recovered beautifully, and of course gained weight but not until she was spayed did her head appear smaller than her body. Lol. She was enjoying life more, and she loved sitting out in the sun room, watching the sun set over the trees in the evening, awaiting them sounds of the crickets at night.

Jasmine enjoyed her life from that moment on. Mainly Jasmine was a happy soul and one of the sweetest personalities anyone would fall in love with her.

And so this is Jasmine’s story. There are so many other moments I could not expel right now, not that they are not vivid but because it pains me to write them.

Everyone builds memories on someone that makes them happy. And if that “someone” is important enough to you, you will find any way you can to keep them in your life or find them if they are missing.

Jasmine was more than a friend, she was my family, and still is even if she is here, or if the early fall leaves have suddenly decided to take her away forever. She is one who I consider my sister or my child and her whereabouts and her safety is everything in the world to me because she was there for me, and she calmed me and every day she made me smile and knowing when I petted her she was purring makes me know I was doing a great job so far, she was loving life with me and that’s what is important.

Anyone can give her a nice life from here on, but no one can give her the life I shared with her. And I SPEAK that for any true animal lover out there who considers animals their close family or children and that are missing out there somewhere, waiting to be found, so they can share more memories.

Jasmine had a rough start. But she had her family to get her through it. And with that she grew into the happy cat she was until the day she terribly went missing again. And now the clock is ticking and my heart with it. It is almost like I am holding my breath because I know there is not a lot of time left.

I want to leave and start a new life with my family. But in a month that reality slowly crumbled. I know that sounds ridiculous but one of my terrible fears is that she will one day arrive back at the house where I live in Cardinal, and see nothing but a big white empty house, and nobody there to greet her back. Her family gone. That thought is a real living, breathing nightmare. I have honestly had nightmares of these things before and when they actually become real even though you never think it will, it's unbearable. It‘s suffocation and you struggle to catch a single breath. I cannot even fathom doing this. And right now as I write this I am weak but pressuring myself to write the last act of help for her, my last voice calling out to the world before it’s too late.

Please anyone out there who feels deeply for another species other than her own, or whom has lost a furry family member like me and understands what I am going through, I would do the same for you so please, help me in any way you can.
My name is Phoebe, I am currently located at Cardinal, Ontario, but I will shortly be moving and I need help finding my sweet Jasmine. I am not giving up hope. Someone may think she is a stray but she is spayed and we are her owners. Have it in your heart, help me find her. Just pass on the word, look anywhere you can.

As my number will be disconnected very shortly, please email me! If you don’t have a computer in use, ask a friend, family member, use the library,use your phone, just please do not pass up anything you may know or think twice about sending it. Anything can help and it most certainly would mean everything to me.

Thank you for reading this urgent message. Also I know a reward wouldn’t be necessary to everyone however there is a reward if she is found.

Thank You

Phoebe

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