I am so sad..

My darling cat Elkie is blind. She is going to be 14 years old in April. I am not sure of what day. She was born in a log in front of our house with her 4 brothers.

My kids fell in love with the kittens. Five brand new kittens. We left the garage open so the mom could nurse them and we also fed her. The mom then kept taking all the kittens away. She would take them into the woods and leave them. I would search for them and they were out there in the open meowing like crazy and I would carry them back. They finally were old enough to wean off of their mother.

The kids later named them, Cheerio for the orange and white cat, Tum was John's choice for a grey tabby and Elkie the calico he named also I think. Amy named Chauncy a black and white one, and Fig or Twiggy was the multi colored one.

We lost Tum a few weeks after they all got fixed, the neighbor who had all the strays eating at their house, well we think that Tum still had that instinct to want to mate, it lasted in male cats sometimes, well he went down to the neighbors and that is when the hubby got tired of all the cats, 17 of them I heard, and relocated them to someone's barn and we think Tum went too. We lost Chauncy a few years later and about 10 years later we lost Fig, he had gotten huge about 15 pounds and he would only come here every few months (when he snuck out) we think the neighbor behind us was feeding him and letting him live inside, we thought he had a better life there so we did not try to get him back.

Their mom was a stray that mostly lived down the road by a neighbor's house but came by our house a few times. The mom cat who the kids called Darcy (I think Amy got that name from the Smashing Pumpkins singer, Darcy, heck it was 1995, and Amy was 12 years old) brought her kittens into our just built garage one day when the door was open. She put them into a sledding saucer that was on top of an air conditioner. My husband had two air conditioners, he used them every other year, not sure why?

The hubby said if the kids would pay to get the kittens fixed/spayed they could keep them. He was cheap even back then! The cats would live in the garage since we had no barn. The hubby cut his good steel door to put in a cat door for us. The slept in a wagon and had a heat lamp in the Winter. That was their lives for many a year. The kids kept a running assortment of furniture out there to sit on, including a chair a love seat too.

Darcy the mom was a wild cat and did not like us too much. Once in a great while the daughter could catch her to pet, but not too many times. One day the mom came back and had a huge growth on her neck and would not let anyone near her. We let her come and go to eat but eventually she never came back.

Later a few years this happened to Elkie and and we took her to the vet and he said a horse fly or he called it a cow fly bit her and laid a bug inside her neck, it was a flesh eating bug and it chewed half her insides of her neck away. He removed it and patched Elkie up, $200 later she came home, the hubby said he could of gotten me a whole pick up load of cats for that money! She then always had a trouble with eating dry food and that is when we switched to wet can food for her. We loved her so, and had to take care of her.

The kids always wanted a cat but the hubby did not care for them much. He was raised with barn cats. And maybe one inside cat, I think from some old pictures of his childhood, I deducted that. We did not park our cars in the garage ever, he let the cats have a good home out there. He was scared that he was going to run over them with his tractor, so he would rev it up real loud and out they would run. To this day Cheerio was really scared of motors. The hubby said that was necessary.

A few years ago Cheerio got sick and we had to give him an antibiotic 3 times a day, the hubby let him come inside for that and then after that he let the last two cats come in to live, Elkie and Cheerio. I had asked many times before but the answer was always no. I was so glad!

They got used to the house right away, Cheerio wanting out more than Elkie would. He would not come back till real early in the morning when no one was about. He always hid in the neighbor's boat across the street. I would go out and get the paper and call him and he would pop out of that boat. He is totally scared of people. He likes me the best though.

Elkie would go out a few hours and come right back climbing onto the top of the railing by the kitchen window meowing to come in. She would run right in when you called her, Cheerio would not do that, you would have to cajole him in or catch him. He would get right up to the door and run the other way, he is a stinker!

Elkie became blind in about three days. Well it might of been a bit longer coming, maybe a week looking back. But it was such a busy time. My daughter got married last Saturday and we were gone doing last minute things for a day or two. One day we ironed tablecloths for 6 1/2 hours straight. The we, as in the hubby and I. Well he ironed for about 3 1/2 hours, him having back surgery 2 month's prior. He did not need to stand over an ironing board for too long!

So we figured out she was blind and diagnosed her online with kidney disease, but took her to the vet, she did a blood test, and Elkie did indeed have kidney disease, with only 25% function left, the blindness comes suddenly when it is almost too late to do anything for the cat. Though we had hope. We bought the medicine and prescription cat food. Elkie ate a bit when we got home and for a day or two after wards. Now she had not eaten all day. But tomorrow I am going to make some steak and see if she will eat it. She loves steak. Tender steak that is. That idea just came to mind.

She is sleeping all day, well all the time and just gets up to go to the litter box and drink water and eat if she has a mind to it. At first when the hubby saw she was blind he wanted me to put her to sleep. He said I did not have the time for a blind cat. I have all the time in the world, I stay at home do not work. He is actually jealous of this little blind cat. Can you imagine? He is off sick with his back operation and I am not catering to him now.

Since Elkie has been blind Cheerio stays in my bed and sleeps by her. I think a cat knows. Before that he would have the downstairs for his territory and she the upstairs. He would roam at night the upstairs though. She would usually stay upstairs but once in a great while come and sleep with me, well on me she liked to sleep on my hip or chest depending how I was sleeping. Now she wants to do it but is blind and cannot manage getting on my side so I lay on my back so she can sleep on my chest and she likes that. I am staying down stairs most of the time because I want to be by her in case she needs help. She manages to jump off the bed and she manages her way to the food litter box and water. Though today she went upstairs and wanted out and I would not let her out. I could not have her get away blind now could I?

She has a time getting back up, the bed is new and much higher than our old one and she remembers the old one. She comes back from eating and she lays in a box we have for hr on the floor all fluffed up with towels and then either goes to sleep or meows real loud and you lift her on the bed. If you pick her up when she does not want you to she will scratch you, I am all scratched up.

So I do not want to put her to sleep. Not yet though, as soon as she seems in pain. Or right before if I can manage that. She has always been the runt. She is normal at 7.5 pounds and now is 6.5 pounds and you can see some skeleton a bit showing. She purrs like mad when you stroke her head, her body she does not like you to pet. Her purrs have been always really loud since her operation to get that bug out of her all those years back.

I had always called her my little girl since she was so little and her brother Cheerio was so big at about 11 or 12 pounds. She will always be my baby girl, even at almost 14 years old..