CELEBRATION OF LIFE
If You Are A Cat Lover Like Me, Then This Story Is For You
In honor of the best cat I’ve ever had the pleasure to “own”
A couple of days ago (literally, just 2 days ago), I read this hilarious story by Alan Asnen about his cat Cali:
My little kitty, for example, Miss California 2016 — Cali for short — has been spoiled over the years with relatively moderate playthings but has proved to be a good little anarcho-feminist role model for the community.
It inspired me to write a story about my wonderful, lovable fur baby named Gael.
I’ll include a link at the bottom of this story that goes into detail as to why he is not with me here in Germany.
Long story short, it was in Gael’s best health interest for me to move him to another caretaker and home shortly before I moved to Europe.
He was 13 years old and the move overseas would’ve been too much for him.
I was heartbroken…but very grateful and happy that I miraculously came across a young lady with a huge heart of gold who very much wanted him. She also happened to live just 5 minutes away from me!
He has always been an affectionate and awesome cat.
I knew he’d make a wonderful companion for someone who wanted a cat, but it’s not so easy to find a person willing to take in a senior cat.
He was born on my living room floor. I watched him take his first breath, along with his 5 siblings.
I even made a video featuring him set to one of my favorite songs.
His new caretaker, Kitty (real name) has been kind enough to keep in touch with me via email over the past year and a half.
She’s sent me photos at times, but most importantly, she’s kept me up to date as to how he’s been doing, which has been pretty damn good…
until the other day.
It’s so hard to tell how long any of us will live, but I’d hoped that Gael would live at least until 16–18 years old with few health complications.
Kitty wanted him as an emotional support animal because she suffers from severe anxiety.
He’s her first pet.
My heart broke and I sobbed as soon as I read the first few lines of her email telling me that he’d stopped eating and drinking water over the past 2 weeks.
His health was declining rapidly and she wanted my input.
She’d continued taking him to the same veterinary doctor since she happened to live 5 minutes from my old home.
Kitty tried to get an appointment but couldn’t until next week. She said that the doctor told her to try to make him as comfortable as possible in the meantime.
I didn’t want to tell her what to do but suggested euthanasia to put them both out of their misery.
Cats mask pain well and once it gets to the point where they stop eating- even their favorite food- and drinking water, at his age (14 1/2 years old), it pretty much spells the end.
Kitty is still in the midst of deciding what to do. I’ve given her a good option and she came up with a good one as well.
Both result in ending Gael’s life mercifully.
I can hardly think of anything else today, and I’m coming to peace with it all after the initial shock of the news.
Thus writing this story-
As a way to honor the life of this exceptional fuzzy being who captured my heart, as well as everyone else’s with whom he came into contact.
Here’s the story I mentioned earlier:
Due to covid, I wasn’t exactly sure when I’d be able to leave the country. My flight to Italy in June was cancelled, but I found out that I could fly to England and then to Italy a month or so later. My flight was set for early August and it was almost mid-July. I still hadn’t found a good home for Gael and it was really stressing me out.
Then I got the call…
Become a member:
