Watson, the furriest member of our family for sixteen years, went to feline heavan last evening. He will be missed tremendously. The family cat, he was particularly connected to my wife, who passed away almost nine years ago. He soldiered on like the rest of us. Then my daughter grew up and moved out so it was just him and me. We were the best of buddies...my little shadow. We moved 1,000 miles to the desert and he took it in stride -- "Where is the grass?" I'm sure he was thinking. He liked chasing lizards but never caught one.
He had a long and full life. At age sixteen he was very elderly and suffered from hyperthyroid disease. His weight dropped to around ten pounds -- that was less than half his weight when he was a young and robust twenty-two pounds. He had a bout of diabetes but that went into remission.
The last month was a downward spiral. He refused to eat. He was a great pill-taker so he got his meds every day and I was giving him B6 shots. Finally it was a saddle thrombus that paralyzed his back legs. This is a painful and distressing thing and at his age there were no other options. He suffered from separation anxiety every time I boarded him so an intensive care stay would have just been too much. The vet said the thrombus had a 95% chance of retirning even if we could "fix' it somehow this time. He passed quietly into the next world.
Farewell
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