Passing of a Good Friend

The vet said Hercules had a month to live two months ago, (kidney disease) so he beat the insurance companies, but he started losing weight several days ago and then he stopped eating and drinking entirely.

He disappeared off into the neighborhood, and wound up reuniting us with a neighbor we hadn't spoken to in years.  It was one of those miracles of serendipity.  That was a special gift he gave us on what turned out to be his last day on Earth.

Early this morning, the vet told me Hercules had a bone tumor in his jaw and he would never eat or drink again.  I was certain I could get him to eat, so I took him home and tried for several hours.  He wouldn't touch milk, water, or gravy, so he and I just laid out watching the trees blow in the breeze by the pool in the back yard. Occasionally he would squeak to me that his jaw hurt.  Finally I put water on his tongue with a medicine dropper, so he could drink without moving his mouth, and he didn't even try to lick it up.  So I figure that means he made the judgement call for himself.  He climbed right into the cat carrier, again showing me that he knew what he was doing.

We had our "Soylent Green" appointment today.  He got two injections that were a bit painful at first.  I stayed with him petting him and telling him what a good boy he has always been for 15 minutes, so he would feel me by him through the last possible moment of any brain activity.  I believe cats probably get the tunnel of light just like humans do.  (I've asked a half dozen folks who died in a motorcycle accident or on an operating table and were revived, and they all got the tunnel of light with relatives waiting at the other end.)  So I gave him the best possible sendoff I could give him.

I prayed a Luminous Rosary for Hercules, my unconditional best friend for the last 17 years, for him to help me to make the coming years count and reach my goals and become the best person I can be.