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This morning the Second of September 2010, my cat Paddington passed away.

Paddington Yawning (2008)

When I adopted him and his sister, they were estimated 8 years old. That was 2000 or 2001, so they were born in the early ’90s. Just before I adopted them they went from a rescue shelter to the Humane Society as a pair because they didn’t get along well separately. I adopted the pair and they’ve been my companions ever since.

( more about them here: http://www.gnurple.net/2005/11/21/i-never-forget-a-pussycat/ )
( links to some pictures here: http://gnurple.net/gallery/v/dacatz/ )

After 10 years of happy life in my care, Paddington recently developed glaucoma in one eye. This eye has always had funny spots (they’re visible in a 2003 picture) and these spots simply became more plentiful over time. We thought nothing of it until a month or two ago when his behaviour changed and he stopped eating. He took a trip to the vet, and that turned out to be a bladder issue but the vet noted that the eye was damaged and that he probably didn’t see out of it anymore.

Mah hunnybear and I decided that given his age and our situation, more vet exams, eye surgery and treatment were not the right path. We decided that we would keep him happy at home until he started showing signs of distress, and then we would put him down. That was a hard decision to make, but we felt (and I still feel) it was right.

His eye got worse, but it didn’t trouble him — at least, not enough to distract him from his daily routine of eating, soliciting pets and sleeping on my head at night. In the end his eye looked pretty bad, and we knew it was getting worse and the time was coming, but he still behaved normally until this morning when he wasn’t waiting for his breakfast. I found him curled up under the crib. (cats are known to crawl off to a hiding place when they’re ready to die)

He knew it was his time, and I knew it, too. I gave him comfort and he purred until it was time to go to the vet. I was with him when he went, petting him as he got his shot and slept for the last time, never to wake again.

I brought his body home and, fulfilling my final duty as his caretaker, I made a grave for him at the top of the hill in the backyard by the big tree that grows there.

From the earth we come to this life and by the earth are we sustained through our lives, and to the earth my friend and companion is returned. May he rest there in peace.