R.I.P. Chase

She picked us (or actually, she picked J). She was a cute little stray cat in the neighborhood that just couldn't get enough pets. She quickly became one of the family. She was our traveling kitty...two moves to Japan and back and a couple more across the US in the car, camping and golfing. She could fly through the air with the greatest of ease while chasing toys (hence the name), and couldn't get enough of the pets. She has always been a low maintenance kitty that tolerated just about everything we ever put her through, from flying on planes to getting shaved to the skin during the hot seasons. She was never much of a talker but she would headbutt you or lick you if you stopped petting her before she was ready. She has been a part of our family for 12 1/2 years and today, I had to make the horrible decision to put her to sleep.

She was diagnosed with feline diabetes (even though she was normal weight) late last year and we tried the insulin and high protein diet to see if we could maintain her. Unfortunately she wasn't maintaining...we were just slowing the disease down and I just didn't want that to be either of our lives (hers or ours). So two weeks ago, when the last bottle of insulin ran out, we stopped the insulin shots. She seemed to be okay for awhile but then last week, she stopped eating and then started to lose a ton of weight. In the last few days, she started having trouble balancing and her eyes started to seem tired all the time. She would still purr and she still loved the pets (right up to the end), but it just seemed like the bad was definitely outweighing the good for her. We don't know for sure that her decline was due to the diabetes alone, after all, she was 14 years old, but today, I just felt like I needed to be fair to her and do the right thing, even though it was the hard thing.

I love you Chase, and I miss you. I couldn't have asked for more from a great kitty and family member. Even with tears running down my face, I hope you are more comfortable and getting lots of pets.

________________________

Seven Years Ago on In My Words....A great story about Chase Bathroom Kitty