No, not me. My kitty. She was the original a99kitten. Back in 1999, when I would work on my computer at home at night as my husband (well, fiancee back then) and I started a company at night while I worked at a hedge fund during the day and he was in business school at Stanford, Gypsy would demand attention by laying across my keyboard and knocking the mouse around. She was a cyber kitten and she got the nickname a99kitten when she wouldn’t let me type as I was choosing my username :)
I was signing up for Yahoo and needed a username. I came up with a99kitten for her. It’s been with me since then and I can’t imagine ever changing it. But usernames seem to last longer than kittens :(
We got Gypsy to keep my other cat Jack company. He predated my husband. Jack was a good kitty but since we worked so much and were out of the house a lot, he seemed lonely. We would come home and he’d be in the window looking out and meowing :( So we got him a sister. He liked her right away but she would hiss and swat at him. Jack was a BIG kitty and she was a small kitten but she really wanted no part of him. Her first weekend with us, Jack was sitting on my lap and she was sitting next to me on the bed. She would hiss at him for no reason, and he would smack her in the head with his tail. They kept this up for about 20 minutes. Was pretty funny actually.
The next day, she was still hissing and swatting him at him all the time, even though he wasn’t doing anything. I left them alone for about an hour in the house. I figured, they will work it out. Came back home and they were sitting next to each other. With NO hissing or swatting! They were best friends and inseparable from then.
When we got Angelus, he would chase them up into their cat trees if they ran from him but was generally he didn’t care about them. Then we got Storm. All of a sudden there was a pack. And prey. Storm taught Angelus how much fun it was to chase the cats and try and get them and shake them. If we were home and awake, everyone could live together without incident but at night, the dogs stayed in the bedroom with us. And if I had to leave the dogs home for some reason (they typically went with me everywhere), then I would put the cats in the guest room.
But they got Jack and Gypsy each once. Each time it was for only a second or 2 and the cats were always OK since we separated it quickly, but it was not OK for them to live in fear. So my husband found this company that made outdoor cat enclosures that you build in your yard. They were the size of small rooms. He drove out to the middle of nowhere California and picked up the kit the weekend after the dogs got Gypsy. He built it and put in several cat trees and shelves. I filled it with their beds and blankets. Had tarps on it to close when it got stormy. We ran electricity from under the house to it and put in an electric water fountain (Jack refused to drink standing water) and moved them in.
They actually really seemed to like it as they got sunshine in, could watch the birds, etc. But it also meant they couldn’t snuggle with me anymore :( And from pretty much that point on, I felt like a failure of a cat mom. Sure they were safe, dry, well fed, etc but still. I recognize a lot of cats live outdoors and don’t get that much care but mine always had. I would go out and see them daily. Give them fresh food, water, etc. Pet them, brush them. When I went out of town, friends came by to check on them or I hired a local woman who did pet care to come daily.
We considered finding them a new home but that’s pretty much impossible. There are so many cats and dogs in shelters that I couldn’t ever ask a friend to choose my safe and cared for cats over a shelter cat who would be put down if not adopted.
Several years ago, Jack died. So that left Gypsy alone out there. Then I felt really horrible. I would try and visit her more but it was still not the same for as having her kitty brother or living inside with her humans. But it also wasn’t right to bring her inside so she could be afraid every day.
When I moved up here full time last November, I brought her up with me. I made the upstairs her domain and the dogs were not allowed up there ever. She seemed so, so, so, so happy. I have 2 guest rooms so she had numerous beds to sleep on and under (of course she didn’t want either of her beds that she had.) She would cruise downstairs at night when the dogs were asleep and I went upstairs numerous times during the day to pet her and brush her. She seemed like a happy little kitty.
About a month ago or so, I noticed that she wasn’t eating. After 2 days of that, I took her in to the vet hoping for a simple, fixable problem. Nope. She was in renal failure. Now, that can mean a day, a week, a month, a year. You just don’t know. I started giving her sub-cutaneous fluids daily, extra potassium and put her on a special diet. She seemed like she was happy again. Yay. But kidney failure isn’t curable. Just manageable. And she is 16.
Yesterday morning she didn’t want to get up to eat. She’d ate like a champ if I brought it to her but she didn’t want to walk anymore. I brought her out into the sun with me on the deck and we hung out. Storm stayed in the shade and said we were crazy.
But then she didn’t want to eat last night. I brought her bed into my bed last night and she slept there. This morning she doesn’t want any food or water. She doesn’t get up from her bed. It’s her time. We are now hanging out on the deck in the sun. She has always loved the sun. Every time I pet her, she purrs and purrs. It’s a very hard decision to make when you see them looking at you and they seem like they are “there”. But her body is betraying her. And I do not want her in pain or feeling very sick. She deserves better than that.
I called the vet this AM and she agreed that beyond giving her fluids, there is not much to do at this point. It’s just deciding when. I had to with Jack and it was awful. Angelus took that decision out of my hands, which I am frankly still not fully recovered from. Gypsy will need me to help her. We are sunning for the rest of the morning and afternoon and I am taking her to vet late this afternoon. It’s not fair. She finally gets back inside and is happy and nature takes her away.
Gypsy has been a great little kitten who always just loved people and attention. She is the true a99kitten.
Gypsy
