Yes, Today is my Birthday....

And i should be celebrating. But as I have told my husband, this year my birthday has been canceled. How am I supposed to celebrate my birthday when today would be the last day that I got to see my Joey cat.

Yes....Joey is gone.

Last week I had to go out of town. Simon and I knew that Joey hadn't been feeling well, but I had to leave him in charge of things. When I was out of town Simon brought Joey to the veterinarian and they took some x-rays and found some things that were not normal. I'm not going to go into it...but it was bad.

When I left on Wednesday I was in the garage saying goodbye to Simon. I knew that Joey wasn't well, and I just had a bad feeling...I should have stayed home with him. But...I had made a commitment and well when I say I am going to do something I do it. The last thing I said to Simon when I left home was...."Keep Joey alive until I get back."

I was gone from Wednesday through Sunday...when I returned Sunday I thought that everything was fine. But then Simon and Sarah walked into the TV room, shut off the TV and sat down. Simon said "we need to talk about Joey". And that was when I was told that we had to put him to sleep...there was no hope for him and he was in a great deal of pain. Simon told me that the Emergency Animal Clinic was open until 8:00 the next morning and we could go at any time....but I didn't want to do it. I knew we had to, but I didn't want to.

I sat on the couch and cried (okay, so I'm still crying). And I told Simon that there was one thing I had to do. I need a paw print of Joey to keep. You see, Joey was "Special"...he was a Hemingway Cat and he had seven toes on his front paws. I told Simon that it was important to me to have this and that I needed it. He asked me where to go to get the things to do the print and I told him exactly what store to go to and where it was. You see...I knew that I had wanted this for awhile.

My husband, my daughter and myself sat at the kitchen table last night doing paw prints and presses of my cat's right paw. It's sitting here next to me at my computer. I wanted it so that I could look over it to see and so that I could remember the times that I had with Joey....

Later last night Simon came to me and said that he really didn't want to go to the Emergency Animal Center...he wanted to wait until today to take him to our regular veterinarian because they knew him, and would take care of him. I told Simon that that was what I wanted to. I wanted him to be with friends. And I knew that that was where we had to go.

This morning we woke up and talked to Joey, we pet him and told him how much we loved him. Then at 9:45 we all got into my car and drove to the vet's office. We were immediately brought into the patients room and the assistant came in. She asked us the questions of if we wanted his remains and the answer was of course yes. I have to have Joey back with me.

Then the doctor came in, explained to us what was going to happen and they gave Joey the injection. I pet Joey all the time, gave him a kiss on top of his and told him that I loved him. And then he was gone.

And that is how I spent my birthday.

I will always remember you my little furbaby....

Joey Cat dob: 9/18/91 dod: 9/21/09

Jill