Intergalactic! Galactic! Galactic!

Meowie

The boyfriend used to joke about how he used Jiggles and Meowie to get me. Well dang these animal-loving instincts, coz I fell for it! -_- When I first went to his house, I was delighted to see a big doggie and a small kitty cat living together. They were actually Sen Hon's kids, but because he was away, the boyfriend took care of them.

I was afraid of Meowie at first, was afraid she'll scratch me if I accidentally piss her off. She was wearing this weird poofy purple collar, thought it was a fashion statement at first but found out later it was just a product of her scratching.

Quite the fashionista huh?

Anyway, on that day, which was October 1 2006, we bought her a new collar. Reason I remember the date is because that's when he and I got together :-)

Meowie is really a special kitty cat. First of all, she doesn't meow like any regular cat. She makes these funny sounds that sounds like a cross between a jungle bird and The Predator. And because she grew up with dogs, she actually fights for attention, so you can expect her to greet you when you reach the house, just like Jiggles would. So cute right?

If I'm on my laptop, she'll saunter over my keyboard like as if I don't have any work to be done, and rub her head against mine. She runs in a pitty-patty manner, with her cute little socky paws.

She loves pulling down towels from the rack and sleeping on them. Sometimes we'd wipe our face with those towels and wonder why our faces get so itchy, so we scratch a bit here and there, and wash our faces, and pat them dry with the towels again. Of course it later dawned on us who was the culprit heheh :P

She loves lying on tummies and following people into toilets. She also loves her Royal Canine Adult 37, always vocal about when she's hungry heheh. She loves hiding in the cupboard, sleeping on fresh laundry (okay, don't we all), and trying to steal from the kitchen counter.

It always cracks me up when she slips when she's trying to jump gracefully up the table, because she'll quickly regain her posture and pretend like nothing happened-- it's like one of those blooper videos hehe.

Me? I like to kiss her forehead, rub her ears, rub between her eyes, let her sit on my tummy, and sayang her while she purrs. :-)

So it's almost been 2 years since Meowie came into my life, huh? Well, short of about half a month I guess.

Last Sunday, she fell ill. She was already showing signs of loss of appetite and wasn't behaving like her usual self, so the doctor did some blood tests and said results will be available in 2 days. He gave her a jab, and prescribed medicine as well as A/D, a type of wet food for sick kitties and doggies coz of it's high calorie, high protein content.

By Sunday night, she was looking much better, and her appetite came back. We were glad!

But she lost her appetite again on Monday, even the wet food didn't work.

Tuesday, lunch time, I went back to feed her some food, we had to use a syringe by then to force-feed her. I was about to feed her when the boyfriend called and said that the vet just called him. Results were in, and Meowie had a serious liver infection which required her to be sent to the vet immediately for an intensive 5-day care. She had to be put on drip.

He left work and hurriedly came back so we could go to the vet together. Meowie was unhappy that she had to go into the cage again, and she was very vocal about it. We told her that it's just the vet, don't worry, doctor's gonna take care of you k?

Tuesday, evening, I rushed off from work to go to the vet to see how Meowie is doing. She was just lying there in the cage, groggy, and lots of pee beneath the cage. The vet said that they couldn't find her vein to insert the drip, so they had to sedate her before cutting open the vein. So she was just groggy, and it's good that she was peeing, we'll see how she is tomorrow, he said. I said thanks so much, I'll see you guys tomorrow k :-)

Wednesday, around 4pm, I went to the vet again. Meowie was still lying in the cage, and she still looked lethargic. Meowie.. meowie... How is she doing, I asked the vet. He sat down and said "Not too good, I'm afraid." What do you mean, doctor...?

"There's nothing much I can do for her anymore."

He went on to explain how serious her condition is, and how the drip isn't even helping, and how her liver is not functioning anymore and she's got fluid buildup inside her, and how she only has about 1 or 2 weeks to live, but I coudln't even concentrate on the facts he was speaking off. I nodded and nodded.. and asked if I can bring her home.

I drove to the house to pick up the cage to bring her home in, but before leaving, I called the boyfriend and that was when I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I cried and cried and said the doctor said there's nothing that he can do anymore. He said what do you mean? I said that the doctor said Meowie only has 1 or 2 weeks to live. He was speechless.

We went to the vet together to bring Meowie home. The doctor said to force-feed her food, and also the medication-- she had 5 pills to take twice a day. That should prolong the pain from hitting her, though eventually her discomfort will be replaced by pain. When the pain comes, then I would recommend to put her to sleep, said the doctor. Don't let her suffer, he said.

That night we washed her bottom half of the body with Dettol because she'd peed over herself in her sleep.

Thursday morning, we force-fed her some food, and her medication. It wasn't a comfortable experience for her and for us, because it was heartbreaking to hear hear meow her unhappy, angry meows while we held her down and force-fed her. She was too tired to get up to pee, and she'd hang her head over the water bowl for the longest time, phasing out.

Thursday night, Sen Hon came back, and we tried to force-feed Meowie again. This time, she vomited on Sen Hon's leg, and refused to eat. I asked her if she's the Exorcist cat, but she was too tired to answer. Jiggles licked Meowie, trying to help her clean up since Meowie had no energy to clean up herself.

We gave her a break, and tried to feed her again, and this time, she refused to swallow, something the doctor had warned us about. It wasn't a good sign.

Friday, I left work early because Sen Hon and I wanted to take Meowie to the vet for one last checkup. By the time I reached the house and saw Meowie, I panicked because her eyes were wide open, but she wasn't looking at anything, and her mouth was opened and she was panting very hard. The doctor said that this was because she found it hard to breathe.

We rushed to the vet, but they were closed! We decided to take her to the vet the next day, so we took her home, Sen Hon carried her upstairs, and he had to go someplace. I stayed back and started wiping the pee off Meowie's legs with baby wipes.

She started coughing and jerked like she was going to vomit, and vomited something dark brownish. I couldn't remember her eating anything of that colour. I tried to keep her warm and said Meowie don't worry, calm down k girl, but she let out a long meow and her body arched back... and all the while, her eyes and mouth were wide open, staring into space... and she heaved, and wheezed a few times... and then she took her last breath.

Her body stopped moving, but there were some small twitches on her legs... you know that last bit of muscle that's still moving even though the heart has stopped beating. I cried so hard because... she was really gone.

The boyfriend got back 5 minutes later and we were both so heartbroken, I didn't know what else to say except "She's not breathing anymore..." as I took more and more baby wipes to clean her soiled legs.

We shut her eyes and her mouth, and bent her body into a comfortable position before her body got cold and hard-- something I learnt from my mom when my grandma passed away.

"Should we take off the collar?" I asked.

"Leave it la... it's the collar we bought for her last time..."

The boys borrowed a shovel from the neighbour and dug a hole in the garden while Jiggles looked on and mosquitoes attacked us. We wrapped Meowie in one of her favourite towels that she loved pulling down from the rack.

They laid her body in the hole, and we ceremoniously sprinkled soft dirt over the towel as we shared random memories about Meowie. Soon, it was time to use the shovel. And soon, the hole filled up. We joked about how we hope Jiggles don't go digging it someday with a "Hey look what I found!" face.

That night, I cried to sleep. I'm so sad that you're gone, Meowie, I really am.

Thanks for letting me be part of your life, Meowie... *hug*