Trixie Taken From Us

Feline Aortic Thromboembolism.

That was is what took our cat Trixie from us today.  It is a genetic condition in cats that can lead to sudden death or, in the case of Trixie, a clot coming loose that blocks that blocks the flow of blood to the hindquarters.

My wife and daughter came home around lunch today to find Trixie on her side on the floor, meowing in distress, and unable to move her hind legs.  They brought her to the emergency vet near our house while I headed over from the office.  And while the vet took her immediately, she had been in her paralyzed state for a while.  Her paws and hindquarters were cold to the touch, she was in a lot of pain, and the doctor said there was little hope for anything but a very temporary recovery due to the state of her heart.  We had to put her down.

She was just a wee thing when her and her brother Fred came to live with us less than six years ago.

Trixie and Fred in smaller, happier times

Today we had to say good-bye, just a year and a month after her brother Fred passed on.  The vet thought it likely that Fred’s sudden death was from the same genetic disposition.

Trixie in my arms at the vet

In a house of tall people and big cats, she was a wee little thing, just 8 lbs, with a squeaking, high pitched meow, who would go every place at a trot or a run, and who had to scale every piece of furniture in the house.

Trixie atop the fridge

In the kitty order of things she was “my cat,” though she was happy to be with everybody in the family.  But when she was young, when I got home she would meow at me and jump up on the kitchen table, putting her front paws on the back of a chair to get her just a bit higher, where she would wait until I came over to pick her up.  She would then wriggle out of my arms and get up on my shoulders so that she could ride around up there… at least until I got close to something taller, at which point she would jump for that.

She also slept on the bed with us every night, either on my wife’s hip or cuddled up with our 15 year old cat Oscar.  She wasn’t much of a lap cat and didn’t like to be held, but she would come over to me at night some times and dig for my hands until I would pet her.  Then, in a display of kitty OCD, she would first lick and then lightly nibble the tip of each finger on that hand.  After that she would run off.

At the vet we all held her one last time.  She was on pain meds and a bit confused, but purring and happy to see us.  True to form, she tried to wriggle out of my arms for a bit, no doubt aiming to get on my shoulders once more.

Trixie cozy on the bed

And now it is all tears at our house today.  We miss her and her little meows and the sound of her skittering around the house.  So many pets over the years, but saying good-bye never gets any easier.

A gallery of Trixie pictures after the cut.

Remembering Fred

Fred.  A big fuzzy friend who would head butt us with such vigor to show his affection for us.  He would bring us a toy to throw for him and fetch it back so we could throw it again.  He would open the medicine cabinet and steal a single Q-tipp, running down the hallway with it dangling from his mouth like a cigarette, and eat the cotton off the tips.  Every night he would follow the same routine, first sitting on my nightstand to attack my hand as I attempted to turn out the light, then running off down the hallway to curl up with my daughter for a bit, before finally retiring to his bucket on the cat tree where he would sleep away the night.

He and his sister came home with us a little over four and a half years ago.  He was just a little thing.

Fred comes to stay

But he grew up to be a big cat, weighing in at 15 pounds and long enough that he was able put his front paws up on the bathroom counter to see what was up there while his hind paws were still planted on the floor.  He was so full of life and interested in everything and everyone.

Full of coziness as well

And then I found him on the floor in our room, on his side, completely still, having choked on something.  He was gone.  We miss him so much.

Fred in the Lights

The holiday spirit has left us.  We feel sad and empty today.

In the corner of our back yard

Fred at rest

Even the best fall down sometimes

Not Distracting At All…

Two of our cats, Trixie and Fred, decided that climbing up on top of the bookshelves in my office would be a good idea.  And then they sat up there and loomed over me as I sat at the computer.

Don’t mind us…

They were, essentially, six feet in the air and about three feet behind me.  Since Trixie likes to jump on things and is fond of perching on my shoulder, I kept an eye on them.

I wonder if it was the fact that I was fishing in Rift that fascinated them.

This didn’t last long.  They got bored and went off to nap on our bed.  We call them the “day shift” in our bedroom.

No Appliance Left Unscaled

Since they arrived as kittens almost two years ago, Fred and Trixie have made it their business to try to get into every nook and cranny in our house.

You have to be careful when you close a closet or cabinet door, since one of them may have slipped past you while you were not paying attention.  I once closed a door on Trixie and she was stuck in the bottom shelf of one of our kitchen cabinets for about half an hour.

But one goal has eluded Trixie until recently, the top of the refrigerator.

She has actually been up there via my shoulder once, but she hasn’t been able to get up there on her own until recently.  Then, the other night, we found her up there.

The Fridge Is Mine!

The opportunity came about when my wife brought home a helicopter landing pad sized island for the kitchen.

It's big, it's heavy, it's wood!

This replaced a much smaller mid-kitchen cabinet and provided a launch point for Trixie’s attempt.

From left to right

In the picture above, you can see her launch and landing points.  Those two points describe the hypotenuse of a right triangle of approximately 60 inches in length.  Not an inconsiderable jump for a little 8 pound cat.

Once up there, one of her goals was to liberate some feathers we had hidden atop the fridge to keep them away from the cats.  Even now Fred is wrestling with one of those feathers in the hall.

Now, however, she has started to make herself at home up there.

I'll watch your calorie intake

Fortunately Fred, who is about double Trixie’s size in every dimension, hasn’t decided to follow her up there yet.

He remains content stuffing himself into things, many of which are too small for him.

The cat not yet out of the bag

Life with cats.

I’m still trying to get a picture of Fred opening the medicine cabinet in our bathroom to steal Q-tips.  He seems to need to get about one a day.

Nostalgia Personified

Or catified, as the case may be.

Fred says, "It Shrank!"

We all go back, or dream of going back, to places where we once enjoyed ourselves.  And often, when we manage it, and things aren’t as enjoyable as we remembered, we grumble about how things have changed.

However, more often than not, we’re the thing that changed.

Trixie and Fred in smaller times

Still, sometimes we can squeeze in and get cozy, even if we stick out a bit.

This post isn’t in reference to anything in particular.  Fred the cat just seemed to get the nostalgia bug at about the same time I did this year, with similar results.

Kitten Invasion

While it has not been that long since our oldest cat Felix passed, it is spring time and thoughts have turned to kittens.

My daughter has been agitating for a kitten for a couple of years now, an idea which was vetoed in the past because we didn’t really want to become a three cat household.

But after Felix’s passing, after some time had passed, there was obviously room in our house for another cat.  Even Oscar has seemed quite lonely since then, as he and Felix were best buddies.

So my wife and daughter started looking for a kitten.  And despite reservations about becoming a three cat household, we ended up with a pair of litter mates, a brother and a sister who are now named Fred and Trixie.  They just came home yesterday.

Both cats were a little nervous when they showed up, but it did not take Fred long to come out of his shell.  He was knocking things over and finding toys not long after he arrived.

Fred and his new favorite toy

Trixie is not yet so comfortable in her new surroundings.  She stays under cover a lot of the time.

Trixie is a little more reserved

We set them aside in my wife’s office, which also serves as the guest bedroom, when we have visitors, and the kitty sun room during the day.

Play time in the guest room

The room is somewhat sparse when it comes to cover, so my daughter and I took an empty copier paper box, cut a few holes in it, lined it with one of my sweatshirts, and presented them with the kitty hotel.

Can we stay here?

I cut a flap in the top of the box which immediately became Fred’s favored door, though he also squeezed through one of the windows at one point.  Kittens can get through remarkably small holes.

No Vacancy

The hotel was a success.  They now have their own cozy spot in which to escape.

So the kittens are settling in.  Now we have to see what Oscar will do.

Oscar perched on the back of an office chair

He knows we’re up to something.  His first response was to hide under the bed.  But when we failed to come get him, he started sniffing around.  Now he wants to know why his sun room is closed and what is making those noises on the other side of the door.

No hissing, growling, or fluffed tails yet.  When we brought Oscar home as a kitten almost nine years ago he bonded with Felix in about an hour.  We hope he will welcome the new kittens the way he was welcomed.

At least until the kittens get loose and begin to stalk him day and night looking for fun.