In Memoriam

 

It is with a heavy heart I announce that Harper has passed away suddenly. She was acting lethargic in a way she had before. A quick nap was a usual fix. We went out on a walk to give her some quiet. She was found by my fiancé's sister in an odd position, breathing heavily. We hurried home and rushed her off to the hospital. I held her as her breaths grew more sporadic. The vets did what they could, but ultimately she passed away on the table as they were putting in the iv. According to the vet, she was not conscious through her spiraling, and thus didn't suffer like she looked like she was. The vet said it was either a brain disease or undiagnosed diabetes. A brain disease would explain all her quirks. I'm just glad we were by her side when she passed. I hope she knew how loved she was. Bless my fiancé, she held it together significantly better than myself.

She was a sweet polydactyl cat. We adopted her from a cat rescue. She was about three years old and was found with a litter of kittens. People thanked us for getting an older cat. That was weird to me. A three year old cat isn't all that old. I got Marcy when she was four. By the time we met her, all her kittens were adopted. She greeted us by opening her mouth, but making no noise. We brought her home the next week. I kept her company in the back seat and let her out of her cage. She immediately walked onto my lap to look out the window and proceeded to meow nonstop until the car ride ended. 

We quickly learned what an odd cat she was. For starters, she wouldn't always meow. She would acknowledge us by just opening her mouth or by letting out a slight "eck" sound. She was bow legged and struggled to climb furniture and also wasn't into playing. We tried everything to get her to exercise, but she just wasn't interested. She also whipped her tail. I mean really flung it back and forth. It knocked things off tables. You could feel that it was more muscular than most cat tails because of this. She would sometimes back up to our fridge and her tail would quiver. We learned it was her instinctually marking her territory, but because she was fixed, she couldn't spray. 

As time went on, we learned she had poor object permanence. This became more prevalent when introducing Marcy. She would see Marcy go upstairs, but still act like she could be anywhere. She also had a habit of overgrooming her stomach. She failed to groom anything else and suffered from dandruff. The vet said it was because she was chubby. We changed her diet and she lost her excess weight. She didn't change the habit. 

She loved being brushed and was just starting to get the hang of how to lay on someone's lap. She never did quite get it. Her love of food (especially dry food) trumped anything else. It would put her in precarious situations. Mostly her getting cornered by Marcy after trying to go after Marcy's food.

I write this to remember her. Our time with her was short. Far too short. But she was such a wonderful baby. I hope she knew how much we loved her. I will always miss her. 

If reincarnation exists, I asked her to come back to us as a black polydactyl cat who greets us with a silent meow.