Goodbye, Buttercup

Okay, so this post has runny poo and a dying cat in it. Don't read it if you can't handle that stuff.



For the past several weeks, Buttercup had looked a little rough. Maybe she wasn't getting enough sleep (only 18-19 hours instead of 20-22?) or maybe she hadn't taken a bath in a while. I thought it might have to do with the two new kittens wearing her out. For the last three days, we kept finding barf and poo --runny poo-- and I still didn't make the connection to Butter. I thought the barf was the kittens eating too much canned food too fast and the poo was probably Scrapping eating out of the trash when no one was looking. Turns out, it was all Butter.

This morning she squatted in front of Mike and poo-ed everywhere. He wasn't pleased. But by the time Zak had it cleaned up and went to the bathroom to wash, the cat was in the hallway, on her side, not moving and breathing very shallow. Zak put her on his bed and came to get us, tears in his eyes.

You see, Buttercup has always been Zak's cat. We got her and Graycie as strays when they were about four weeks old. Their mom had been run over in a parking lot and the mini-mart attendant was calling someone to come get the kittens and drown them since they couldn't live without her. Mike to the rescue. I remember bringing them home and giving them a bath and then introducing them to Lucy, our shih-poo. The vet said as long as they had teeth, they could eat soft food, and they did, but they still needed a mommy, so Lucy nursed them. Yes, really.

Since I can remember, Butter thought she was a dog, or maybe human, but Zak was her boy. He could say, "Butter, bedtime" and that cat would dash off to his bed. She was smart, but stupid and dorky at the same time, skittering through the house and crashing into walls. She would lay in his lap for hours while he watched a movie or played a video game. Butter was also the kitty who caught mice in our house here in Virginia.

Mike looked for an emergency vet while I went to check her out. As I petted her, she purred, but she didn't lift her head and great handfuls of hair were coming out. I knew she wouldn't be alive for long. Scrappy licked her on the nose, we wrapped her in a towel and the boys left, promising to call asap.

The first call was to let us know that she had low blood pressure, they didn't know what was wrong, but she needed to stay the night and it would be at least $2500. Mike started filling out the paperwork for financing and called back for my SSN and drivers license number. Then Zak asked to talk to the doctor again. They were pretty sure it was lymphoma, which is incurable. Zak asked that she be put to sleep. Mike called again to let us know they were coming home. Zak buried her next to his shed out back. Aly and I are happy to think that Buttercup gets to meet my Minny Kitty and Aly's big brother Isaiah. And, Aly says, "Just think of all those strings from the balloons we've sent to Heaven."

I'm sure we have a ton more photos to share, but they are on the other computer, so I'll post them later.

Goodbye Buttercup!