Today, I had to say good-bye to one of my best ever friends, my sweet cat Jordie. I had the pleasure of knowing Jordie for 12 years.....he would have been 13 in August.
I found Jordie in Red Bluff, back when I still lived there with my parents. I found him in 1995. I actually heard him before I found him. I had just left karate for the night and walked to my car. Just before getting into the car, I heard a muffled sort of snorting noise- like someone with a stuffy nose. I looked around and there, crawling towards me on the ground, out from underneath the car next to me was a tiny black kitten. This kitten was in really sorry shape. To begin with, I thought he was a black cat, he was covered in so many fleas and so much dirt. I got an old towel out of my trunk that I just happened to be carrying and wrapped the kitten up in the towel. He rode home with me on my lap in the towel. The most curious thing about this kitten was that he was purring. I had always been told that cats purred when they were happy, and indeed, maybe this little guy was happy to finally get off the street and get warm. But he was also very, very ill and I didn't know how he could purr feeling as poorly as he must have.
Over the course of the next few days, I cleaned Jordie up and got him to the vet. His first bath in the sink revealed that he was not in fact a black cat, but a very cool orange/tan and white. I loved his markings- he had two spots of white on the orange part of his back and a matching two spots of orange on the white part....it was as though someone folded him in half when his colors were still wet and the spots matched in shape and size only varied in color. The dirt and fleas were only the start of Jordie's problems......he also had pneumonia, infection in both eyes, intestinal worms, a distended belly from mal-nutrition....he was very underweight. For his entire life, he would suffer from weak "wrists"- probably from the mal-nutrition as a baby- not enough calcium or something and not nursing long enough as a baby. This could be seen in his adult life when he'd sometimes land wrong when jumping down from the bed or it would appear that one of his front legs would suddenly give-way.
The vet gave him a very slim chance to live. I was told to give this kitten lots of TLC, keep him warm, clean his eyes several times a day and administer his meds for the other ailments. Jordie was definitely not hard to give lots of TLC to. He had such a gentle soul!! At times throughout my life with him, I thought of him as a guardian angel of sorts. He's always seemed like an angel kitty to me. He was also my very first cat that I could call just mine. I'd always had cats with the family growing up, but I begged Dad to keep this little kitten I'd found, fearing he'd say No. He saw how much I loved Jordie from the start though and our bond was already formed, so Jordie became my sidekick.
Well, as the weeks passed, I gave Jordie all the TLC I could- he enjoyed flea baths followed by drying out in the warm California sun. He would stretch his little arms up above his head, lay on his back and just soak it all in. Back then, he had very little hair on his belly and you could see his veins thru his skin. Over time, his health started to return and Jordie turned into a very playful and awesome little kitten. I'd carry Jordie around with me wherever I went and at night, I'd snap my fingers together and then point towards my bedroom and he'd know it was time for bed. He'd come jump up on my bed and would crawl up on my tummy. I'd cover him with our blanket and he'd go to sleep there on my tummy.....I'd be gently lulled into dreamland by the purring.
Jordie was a happy, healthy cat and he moved from my parents' house down to our Folsom apartment with me after I married my husband in 1999. At this time, he became "our" cat.......my husband grew to love him too, even though he was not originally a cat person.
A few unique things I'd like to include about Jordie so that I don't forget are: He liked to lick strange things!! He loved to get in the shower when someone was done and lick whatver water was left!! He'd lick the wall, plastic bags, later, he'd even groom our dog Kaya!! Jordie also liked to eat string or ribbon......so we'd have to be very careful if the kids had balloons or something like that in the house. We had a lot of ribbon-less balloons around so that Jordie would not eat them and get sick. Jordie loved to crawl into boxes (sometimes too small for him) and sleep, he always loved to sleep under a blanket too- I think that came from me covering him up on my chest every night as a baby. Every time I was sick, without fail, I could count on Jo-Jo to come be with me. He had a sense about that it seemed and he'd even come sit by me if I was feeling down about something. In the new house, after we moved from the apartment and had our first child, Jadon, Jordie took up residence in the bassinet! The stress of the move, or of the new baby, or maybe of the addition of our other cat, Allie, may or may not have led to Jordie's first real vet visit since he was a baby.
It was timed such that in the first week home with Jadon from the hospital, Jordie started acting very sick. This was 2002. I brought him to the vet with my newborn baby boy Jadon in tow and found out that he was either in kidney failure or it was a kidney infection that we caught in time. Jordie was put on under the skin fluid injections- Lactated Ringer's solution- restores some vital vitamins and minerals to cats in this situation quickly. I learned how to administer the fluids and went home with some fluid IV sacks and needles. Over the course of a few weeks, Jordie bounced back to health and I was able to slowly wean him off the fluids. He went back to normal eating and hydration and back to himself. He was, however, put on a new special food for cats with kidney troubles. Regular foods in the stores for cats these days include too much crude protein and ash....it's very bad for the kidneys of cats. So, the new food was KD brand dry cat food. Another thing about Jordie- he'd always liked dry food over wet. I could offer him the nicest piece of turkey, ham, chicken or tuna and he'd sniff it, maybe lick it, but turn it down for his dry food!!
Jordie did really well with this new food and was on watch and healthy until, interesting timing again, he got sick again a week after our second child was born in 2005. This time, we put him immediately on the fluids again and he bounced back again despite his blood values not looking very good. Again, lots of TLC and special attention. He was again put on watch to make sure he was eating, drinking and urinating.
Over the past year, 2007, I noticed that Jordie began to drink more than normal. Half the water bowl would disappear, but it was hard to judge if it was just him cuz we also have our dog Kaya (who steals the cat water from time to time) and Allie drinking from the same bowl. This past weekend, we were up in Red Bluff visiting with my parents and celebrating my Dad's 70th birthday. The first day back, I noticed that Jordie looked weak. I talked with my Mom (who has had to go thru two cat deaths due to kidney failure) and she confirmed what I was thinking.....I should take him to the vet. I took him Wednesday to a cat only clinic and they confirmed he was dehydrated pretty severely. We put him back on the Ringer solution and I was able to again administer his fluids at home. He was also put on two types of supplements to help with this sort of thing- a potassium supplement and a calcium (and other vitamin) supplement. They also gave me a special recovery food that really helps some cats in his situation. I was having to force-feed Jordie as he was no longer eating either. I used a special syringe and mixed his new wet food with lots of water and the powdered supplements.
Yesterday, Jordie seemed to perk up a little at one point. There was still weakness in his legs, but he was grooming himself and came out to the kitchen to drink and look around. Today though, things were back to looking grim. He was unable to keep his food down and just looked very, very weak again, so we made the decision to take him to the vet again- emergency care- back to the same Dr. that originally found the kidney problem in 2002. This Dr. is so cool in that he is so loving and compassionate with both the owner AND the pet. He discovered that Jordie was again severely dehydrated despite my efforts....the kidneys were not absorbing anything, he was pretty much shutting down. In a last hope effort, and to make us both feel better about possible euthenization, we did a mini blood test to check his creatin (sp?) levels. Dr. Phiel said that if it were in a certain range, we might be able to pull him out of it again, but if it were above the range, he definitely should be put to sleep. I was given 25 minutes with him before the blood test results were due back so I took him out in the sunlight and let it warm him again. He, of course, was purring. I wrapped him in the towel again and went in to hear the news.
Well, Jordie's levels were over even the high range of treatment, so the time had come. Dr. Phiel let me know that quality of life would be pretty bad and Jordie would steadily go downhill within the next days if I decided to keep treating him at home. I think I pretty much knew this was the day for him to go to heaven in the early morning- just seeing him still listless and weak. You try to prepare yourself, but losing a close buddy like this is never easy (those of you who've had pets will understand this more than those who have never gotten close to a pet). I was given the option of surrendering him to the vet and leaving or holding him while the vet euthanized him. Before then, I didn't know, if it came to that, if I could do it. If I could stay with my little buddy at the time of his death.......but once the time was upon me, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be there holding him. He was given an injection in his right front leg- an overdose of an antibiotic that literlly puts them to sleep within seconds because it goes straight to the heart. He didn't fight, he had no fight left......he stayed in the same position and eventually, his purring came to an end. He came to me and left me the same way.......wrapped in a towel and purring.
I will sooooo miss your loving purr and special chirp sound my little boy!! I'll miss you jumping on me in the middle of the night on your way to your bed at the foot of our bed or on your way out to prowl the house at night. I'm so very sad to have had to say good-bye to you. I loved you so very much. You are without pain now and I know I will see you again one day up in heaven. That will certainly be a joyous reunion!!
Thank you for sharing your life with me Jordie, my Jo-Jo angel. You went thru my last years of living with my parents, my wedding and move to live with my new husband in first the apartment and then our house, the birth of both our kids and the acquisition of our cat Allie and our dog Kaya. We had an awesome 12 years, didn't we??!! I took an idea from my friend Bob and had the vet make me ink prints of your little paws. I will frame that and remember you always sweetie cat!
