Another Sad Day... Ginger -- 1999 to 2009

We had another sad day today. Our Calico cat, Ginger, had to be put to sleep this morning. She had congestive heart failure and was close to death. For those of you who don't know Ginger, we referred to her as our M.I.A. kitty (missing in action), because she spent 90% of her time hiding under our bed. We adopted her 10 years ago as a kitten of a ferral cat litter from our old vet. I had gone to the vet with Amber for her checkup and came home with a new addition to our family. She was always very sweet, but very bashful. She rarely liked to be held...she would come to you on "her" terms. Usually, that was at night when we were going to bed, she would jump up on the bed and poke us with her paw to get her nightly scratch. Sometimes, she would put her paw on my nose while I had my eyes closed and she would scare the bejesus out of me! And boy, did she have a loud purr! We will miss our MIA kitty.

She was having a hard time breathing last night and this morning and not acting herself (she didn't come up on the bed last night and she let me pick her up), so we brought her to the emergency veterinary hospital in Woburn and they confirmed she was in congestive heart failure. She was struggling to breathe (they put her in an oxygen crate to help her breathe a little easier), her nose and gums were blue, her temperature was low, they couldn't get a pulse in her rear legs and when they gave her a diuretic and she urinated, it was discolored showing her organs were shutting down. There were many tests we could have run, had her in the hospital for a few days, had her seen a cardiologist and put her on meds the rest of her life, but she would have 6 months at most, not to mention the thousands of dollars needed for all that...we consulted with the doctor who agreed it would be best to put her to sleep.

It was hard, especially seeing her in the oxygen tank and she seemed more spunky than she had been, but we knew it was the most humane thing we could do. We said our goodbyes, gave her lots of hugs, scratches and kisses and told her we loved her. We told her she would be seeing Amber, Mariah & Sam real soon and be running by the rainbow bridge. I held her head while she was given her "sleeping pill". May she rest in peace and enjoy being healthy again up in heaven running gleefully among the rolling hills with all the other beloved animals. We love you, baby and will always be near and dear to our hearts.