My family's cat Maggie, who is 15 going on 16, has been very ill. She's been living at the vet for the past 2 weeks, trying to figure out what is wrong with her and to get her eating again.
Yesterday my mother told me that Maggie had stopped producing red blood cells and her kidneys were starting to fail. At 11:30 EST today my mom and Burt had Maggie put to sleep.
Maggie and her brother were found on the side of the road in CT in 1990. She was a rescue kitten, as all of my family's cats are. She was gray and white and had thick, soft short hair - like moleskin. We used to call her the "blonde" of the cat world. When she was younger she'd walk into a room and look around as if she had never been in that room before (even though she had just left it 15 minutes before).
As she got older, Maggie got more mouthy. She'd squawk rather than meow and her purr could be easily heard over the telephone wires from CT to CA. When you pet her, she'd get excited and the base of her tail would puff up - that's how you knew she was really happy. She loved to pound/knead/pump her paws/whatever you call it to my mom. If my mom wasn't in bed by a certain time, Maggie would come find her and squawk at her until she got into bed and Maggie could pound her.
As she got even older, and her arthritis got worse, Burt built a wooden staircase so Maggie could walk up and down from the bed. Maggie got fatter and fatter the older she got. At one point she looked like someone had taken an air pump and filled her up like a basketball. She even singed herself once while standing on a table because her sides stuck out so far her fur hung over a candle flame.
Maggie was the matriarch of the cattery at my mom's house (she has 8, well, now 7 cats). She knew her place and never got involved with the kittenish playing of the younger ones. They were beneath her and she was okay with that.
Maggie was the best. I love my two cats dearly, but Maggie will always have a special place in my heart. She was so loving, so quirky. Part of going home to CT was the joy of seeing her again and hearing her squawk.
We will always love you and miss you Maggie.
