Independence Day Weekend & Sad Goodbyes

We headed down to Maryland this past weekend to Snot's new house and to have a mini family reunion.  It was great fun, lotsa food (as always) and great to catch up with cousins I haven't seen in a long, long time.  And the kids finally all got together!

Lotsa food, like always, at our family gatherings.

3rd generation kiddies!
We tried organizing them by age but it's a little hard to arrange the younger ones since they crawl away!

Overall, it was great fun.  I hope to keep this up more often.  I grew up with many cousins and had tons of fun at family gatherings. It would be great if we could keep this up so that Carey could grow up with the same experience. 

Sad Goodbyes [This is going to be long.  I'm blogging about everything so I can remember later and read back when my memory fails.  You can read if you want but I won't be hurt if you don't]

We returned on Sunday night and I received a phone call from my dad early Monday morning that our beloved kitty, Tigger, had passed away Sunday night. =*(

Hearing the news was like having a truck hit me.  It's as equivalent as hearing the news of a dear family member departing us.

I knew this day was coming because his health had been deteriorating and last I heard he wasn't even interested in food, not even shrimp, which is his most favorite food. My parents were going to take him to the vet this week because they knew he was ill. We suspected he had diabetes because he drank so much water and he urinated so much but the thought of giving him daily insulin (read: daily torture) every day just to prolong his life a few more weeks didn't really appeal to my parents. They preferred that he lived his life naturally.  Although I think something else ailed him. He always had stomach problems ever since he was young and I'm sure that attributed to his health problems.

So when my parents returned to the house, Tigger didn't run up to the door and greet my parents, like he always does so they knew something was wrong.  He was laying on the basement floor when they came in and he was too weak to get up on his feet.  We were only gone for a day and a half and for all that time, Tigger hadn't eaten, drank water or gone to the potty.  It's as if he was waiting for them to come back so he could say goodbye.

There was a pile of vomit next to him with some blood in it.  =*(  My mom held him for an hour and comforted him and he just meowed softly.  After an hour, she put him down on the carpet and he slowly passed away right then and there, around 12:30am, July 5th, 2010.  My parents tell me there was little struggle and he passed on peacefully. 

We went to my parents' house Monday around noon to say our goodbyes.  They had left him on the carpet with blankets and it looked just as if he was sleeping on his left side.  I've been in tears since I've heard the news and when I saw him lying there, I just bursted out in tears, absolutely bawling.  I still tear even today when I think that he's gone. I can't believe he's gone and I miss him dearly.

He was a very good cat.  I always said he was a cat with the personality of a dog because he hated to be alone and loved company very much.  He was a great companion whenever I felt sad or down. He would always be there to comfort me.

I adopted him at the age of 20 from an animal shelter in Toms River, NJ, back in the spring of 1995. I really really wanted a cat so my then-bf at the time drove me around to several locations in NJ by Rutgers, where I was attending college.  I was in the search of a black and/or grey kitten but we went to several shelters and there were no kittens to adopt.  The third shelter (Toms River) had several kittens.  There were some really cute grey, orangey, white, black calico kitties I was interested in but they were too young to adopt.  I also picked up a grey and white kitty that kept on scratching at my neck and I was like, no thanks.  The adoption woman said to me that "kittens do that when they like you".  Uhm, no thanks.

My ex asked me "What about that orangey kitty?"

I looked in the cage he was pointing at and yep, there was this orangey kitty sleeping on his sibling's neck.  His sibling was black and grey with this huge orange spot on her nose.  She was pretty but I was more interested in the orangey cat.  Once I picked him up, he just purred and purred and purred and purred and I knew he was the one.  I felt everything was right when I held him so I adopted him right then and there.  It's almost as if he chose me.  I think he was a red tabby with maybe a  hint of angora because his fur was so nice and soft.  His coloring was an orangey auburn during the summer months and in the winter, a paler orange, like a dark blond. He was the most beautiful and handsome kitty! Of course, I'm very biased. :)

I remember thinking back when I was 20...15 years average life span?  I'll be 35..and that'll take a long time in coming.  Boy, was I wrong.  I cannot believe 15 years has passed by so quickly and my TiggerWigger is gone.  *sigh*

My parents are heartbroken as I am.  I think they might even be more heartbroken because he came to be their kitty, their baby. 

Funnily enuf, my mom and my sister hated me because I had adopted a kitten.  My dad was ecstatic from the get-go and was really excited to see that there would be a kitten in the household.  My sister was mad at me because she was allergic to cats.  But you know what?  I am, too.  But I loved cats enough to suffer thru the allergies.  But eventually I got used to him and the allergies went away.

After my mom spent some time with him, she told me in my face that I can never take Tigger back to my own apartment, if I ever had one.  I reluctantly accepted that because Tigger had changed my parents.  They were two really miserable people before the cat came into our lives and the cat changed them into tolerable, almost pleasant people!  I also knew that my parents would provide him a better life with them and not with me.  They have a huge house with lotsa room to roam around so I reluctantly agreed to what my mom said bluntly in my face.

Shortly after I adopted him, I had to move back home with the cat so I took care of him there.  Certain instances made me leave the house prematurely and I had to leave the cat there with them because I knew my parents could provide a better life there than me moving around all the time.  My dad begged me to move back because he missed me and the cat missed me.  Tigger would wait outside my bedroom door and just wait and wait and wait for me to come out of the door but I had left.  So Tigger became their baby.

Tigger always knew that I was the one who adopted him, the original mommy, but he also recognized that I wasn't the highest on the hierarchy.  Haha.  So he became my sibling.  He was always possessive of me.  He hated every bf I had and would scratch them. He was relentlessly jealous of other people who would take my attention away from  him.  Whenever I was sick or feeling down, he was always there to comfort me and hissed at others (like my hubby) to stay away.  He eventually came to love Meanie and vice versa (it wasn't like that in the beginning) and he changed all cat-haters into cat lovers, just because he was so unique.

I miss him...

The only picture I have of Tigger when he was a kitten/teenager.
Big ears and big eyes that he grew into eventually.

Shaking hands with Meanie to get shrimp

In his seat at the kitchen table.

Looking for hotpot goodies

Resembling Puss n' Boots from Shrek

Kitty snuggles with Meanie

Keeping me company while I played videogames back in 2007

Sleeping on my bed

RIP, my beautiful Tiggy

April 2005 - July 5, 2010