 Blackie had been a part of my mother's extended family for years. It wasn't too long after we moved to Dublin, Ohio that mom - ever on the lookout for cats - noticed there were three stray kitties lurking nearby. So she left out food, and they ate, and over time she was able to get closer and closer with the hairbrush... until one day, she got one of them to submit to a good, long grooming. Not long after, she was able to trick them to going to the vets. There is an exact science to this: it involves welding equipment, heavy gloves and lots and lots of catnip. One of the kitties, Greybaby, died from feline leukemia, and the smallest of the three, River Rat, never sat still for pictures, much less came inside, so we never got much of a picture of her before she passed away, also. (Blackie and River Rat were the parents of a few kitties long since given away. We fixed his wagon after that.) Blackie never had much trouble coming in when there was food and a hairbrush involved, so here he is -- in the house and stoned out of his mind on catnip. We refer to this as the 'Betty Ford Clinic' photo; he had the room right next to Bill the Cat. Blackie lived a life of free-wheeling adventure, and was missing a tail to prove it. One day, when Mom was out gardening, he came limping out of the woods with most of his tail skinned down to the bone. We have no idea what happened, but the vet said amputation was the best bet -- there wasn't much left to amputate, anyway -- and so off it went. He had to stay in a cage in the house for a while until he healed. So, for weeks thereafter, he was sitting around with his ass shaved and sewn up, and a big, semi-Edwardian collar of foam rubber around his neck to keep him from pulling the stitches out with his teeth. He got the nickname "Turkey Butt" after that. Blackie hadn't been well for a few years, now. He developed
problems with some internal organs, and the vet gave him six months... two years ago. Somewhere between mom's care for him and the fact that he wasn't ready to keel over just yet, he hung on. However, recently his eyesight was failing, and he was falling off the porch. When mom took him in to the Vet, they said cancer had spread to his brain. So mom made the decision to have him put to sleep.  |