R.I.P. Buddy the cat

I took my cat in today to see the vet. After talking with our vet, I decided it was time to let Buddy go. What an awesome cat. He deserved a good death. He had so many problems and he was waking every night panicked. With renal disease, blindness and what seemed to be dementia, it was the only moral thing to do. I was starting to resent him in the night when he woke me from a deep sleep and I didn't want to have that feeling be the last way I felt about him. The vet said I had let him live longer than what others might have. Still-I am very sad today. Just thinking of him brings tears to my eyes, even when I know it was the best decision.

Buddy claimed me in or around 1994. It could have been 1993. I would get home around 6 pm and he would be there to welcome me. My then husband and I lived on a river edge. There was about a 50 yard vertical drop to the river. There was a huge, flat rock and Buddy and I would sit on it and look out over the river. He actually belonged to the neighbors two houses down. He was an outside cat. I didn't know his real name so I called him Buddy. It turned out his real name was Rowdy and that fit as well.

One day, there was a moving van at Buddy's house. We were sad to see him move. My husband asked them if we could have him. They thought about it and said yes. The next day our next door neighbor had ask to have him as well. He was just that great.

So, time went on and we moved to Wisconsin. Buddy came along. Our other indoor cat died one night and that was it, we had one cat. Then I went through a divorce and got Buddy. He was there for me through those rough times.

Years went by and I moved to Missouri and then Pennsylvania. I remarried a man with two dogs. Buddy survived all of that, too.

Things went down hill when we moved to the farm. Buddy had lost his sight by then and finding his way around the house proved difficult. He started waking us every night with a panicked meow. I had to make a hard decision to euthanize him today.

I want to remember the rascal, Buddy. Also, he was such a lover. He would snuggle up under my chin and drool. The best little hugger ever.

Thank you, Buddy, for being one of the best cats ever.