Mary Angel

(10/2023) Life has many ups and downs and some sharp turns as well, but no matter what it is an amazing ride! This past month has been a bit of a whirlwind for my family. We are trying to look on the bright side, but it is a bit too grey to see the light some days.

Thirteen years ago, this coming Thanksgiving (ballpark), a tiny little kitten showed up on our doorstep. We weren’t sure if she had been abandoned or just found us and was a barn cat from across the field. In any case she loved coming to our door. I suppose the fact that I ran out and purchased cat food for her was probably not the best way to deter her visits. A very short amount of time passed when I started hinting to my husband how nice it would be to have a cat again.

Eventually, I convinced my dog-loving husband that if she was going to be roaming around our property, I wanted to have her seen by the vet and vaccinated. He agreed, as long as she didn’t come into the house. Fast forward a few months and I suggested we get her spayed, so we didn’t have kittens everywhere. He was once again all for that, "As long as she doesn’t come in the house". When I went to pick her up after the surgery, they encouraged me to keep her calm and comfortable for a few days. She has been in the house ever since.

It wasn’t long and my husband suggested if she was sticking around she would need a name. One of the kids, I do not recall which one, suggested Rudy after a family viewing of the Cosby Show. That was all it took, the name stuck. When she was being particularly difficult, her name would be lengthened to Rudy Huxtable.

Although Rudy has been a mix of an inside cat and an outside cat, she definitely preferred to be outside as much as possible. She was also an amazing ‘mouser.’ There were not too many days, when she was young, that we didn’t find a "gift" at the front or back door.

In the last year Rudy has definitely enjoyed a few more days in the house sleeping on my bed. She was becoming more particular about the weather she wanted to be out in. Don’t misunderstand, she was still the best mouser I have ever had. In actuality, I loved her slowed down pace. Suddenly she would be on my bed every night when my day was over. She was completely content to sit on the arm of my chair and let me pet her for hours. In a word, she was much more lovey! I am not sure the rest of my family would agree, as they referred to her as, "Mom’s Cat", but I was loving all the purring!

Fast forward a few more months and I guess Goldilocks had decided my bed was not a good fit, but my youngest daughter’s room was "just right". Rudy didn’t care if she got the bed or the chair, as long as she was in her room. There were many days I would come home from work and go back to give my daughter a kiss on the head and Rudy would be snuggled up against her helping her with her homework. They loved to sit in the chair and watch White Christmas. Their latest thing was for my daughter to put her fist out and say fist pump and Rudy would head butt her fist. They were inseparable.

In the last month we have all noticed that Rudy has looked a little more disheveled. Her fur has been a bit of a mess, even after she cleaned herself. Then about 3 weeks ago she started eating less and less. When she would go outside it would only be for a few minutes and she stayed close to home. There were very few gifts at the door, and something was beating her up. I called the vet and made an appointment. They were able to come to the house in just a few days. Which was a good thing because in that time she stopped eating.

The day before the appointment we noticed a lump on her jaw which everyone suspected was an abscessed tooth. When they started the exam, the doctor immediately began with, "Oh, my!" The lump on her jaw was extremely hard. Upon further examination that found that it was an extremely fast-growing tumor and had most likely spread to her liver as she had signs of jaundice. Being the strong woman I am I held it together, not! I bawled like a baby. I could not believe we went from not noticing a lump a few weeks prior to this ginormous growth taking her life.

The long and short of the situation was that she was suffering and starving. After making our peace with what was about to happen, we asked the vet to come to the house and euthanize her. My husband and I were there and completely wrecked. Keysville Mobile vet was amazing to say the least. They walked us through every step and gave us all the time we needed. Our youngest daughter had been crying for days, as we all knew she wasn’t in good shape. That morning she had texted me from school several times to say she couldn’t keep it together.

When it was over, and we were able to compose ourselves enough to drive we went and picked her up from school. She said she had seen on Life 360 that I had left work and gone home, and she just knew why. She got in the car and saw me crying in the side mirror and then we both started bawling again. From her perspective she had lost her best friend. They had become so close over the last few months that they were inseparable. My husband and I tried to comfort her, but the truth is we were all inconsolable. That tiny 6-pound cat left an elephant sized hole in our lives.

A couple days later my husband was talking about kittens and our daughter said she might be ready someday, but for now she just wanted to remember Rudy. Family pets, whether dogs, guinea pigs, bunnies, or tiny cats are members of the family. Their passing is a great loss and a hard pill to swallow, but the love that they give is completely worth it. When my daughter felt like she didn’t fit in and didn’t have a friend in the world 6-pounds of bombastic-side-eye kitty made all the difference in the world!

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