A Tribute to Bette

So on Friday, we noticed that Bette wasn't eating much at all. By the end of Friday, Kerry was absolutely in tears. He had even tried to get her some beef broth to get her to eat. Nothing worked. She just took one or two nibbles at a time, at the most. So Friday night, he wept. "I think we have to do this tomorrow," he said. At first I was resistant. But eventually, he convinced me it was best.  I noticed that Bette was very clingy. She clung to Rachelle all day Friday, sitting on her lap for hours. She also cuddled against Kerry Friday night. The nicest surprise was that, again, she sat on my lap for about an hour Friday night. I talked to her as she sat there. I sensed that was the last time she would ever sit on my lap, so I told her a lot of things that I never got a chance to say to her. I apologized for being selfish when I could have maybe been paying more attention to her. I also still feel a lot of guilt for our year's stay in China. Her attitude towards me c...

December 26--the day after Christmas--was much more calm around here. Kerry slept, I ran errands, and Rachelle made a wonderful ham and lima bean soup. Since I was gone a lot, I didn't see a lot of Kerry until the end of the day. He told me that Bette didn't eat, at least not in the first half of the day. This is troubling news. If this continues, we might have to move up her final day. She just seems so uninterested in food. Even when we put the Delectables on top of her Iams, and she used to devour her Iams.  Most of the day, Bette slept. One thing that was nice is that she climbed on me again. She seems to be seeking out comfort.  I forgot to mention in the last blog entry that, before we went to bed on Christmas, Bette got on my lap while I was watching Bob's Burgers and stayed there for almost a half an hour. Again, this behavior is very unusual for her. It's true that she seeks me out only when Kerry and Rachelle are not around. But I will take what I can get. She...

I actually had a good Christmas Day overall. We did the usual Christmas things, like go to Manny's brunch with the in-laws, open presents, and see friends. The only thing that was different was that people had to say goodbye to Bette. My mother-in-law, Maureen, and my brother-in-law, Kyle, both said goodbye to her today. They won't be seeing her again.  We have decided that Bette will be euthanized on January 7 at 4:30 pm. CST. We have invited our friend Bradley to join us, and he has accepted. I also hope to have Jeff on the phone during the procedure. I still need to tell Bradley about the day and time.  Kerry is depressed about Bette. And I'm not exactly in the best frame of mind, either. But by keeping this blog I hope I will remember the good times. My sister reminded me today of one of the fun memories: the time that Dorrie, her cat, came to visit our house and got introduced to Bette. They weren't exactly the best of friends, but I'm glad that Alison was able...

 It's about 2 o'clock in the morning. I spent a lot of time yesterday making choices about euthanasia for Bette. This was not a pleasant task. I think Kerry (my husband) and I are going to take her to the vet on her final day: partly because it's cheaper, and partly because she does know Dr. Fried....and we do too.  For those of you who don't know Bette, she's really the most wonderful cat in the world. She is our tabby manx sweetheart. But she is very sick. I got her as a sabbatical gift to myself back in 2010 (and now I'm on my 3rd sabbatical, and it's 2024!). My boyfriend at the time, Jeff, and I walked into a pet store and saw this cute cat. She played jingle keys with us, and the final straw was when she crawled into my arms. I said to Jeff, "I have to have this cat!" We didn't walk into that store looking to get a cat that day. We were just exploring. Soon, I was answering questions about cat care. I think it was about 16 questions or so....