Little Mary

Our pretty little long-haired diluted calico, Marigold, passed away today.  We called her Little Mary and she joined us after we lost our first cat, named Old Cat.  None of us can remember when that happened, but my daughter was probably around 18 or 19 and she's 31 now so we've had her a while.

She was the definition of fraidy-cat, and hid and ran most of the time when she was unsure of who was coming and their motives.  She was extraordinarily sweet and inexplicably in love with our black pug.  She loved to be petted when she wasn't hiding and almost never meowed.  She would just rub against you (and shed, unfortunately).  Her best features were her amazing sea-green eyes...almost the color of green glass.  And she carried  her tail vertically for reasons unknown. 

The worst mess she got into was when she stepped in a glue trap and dragged it up the basement stairs stuck to her foot and her butt.  It took me a couple of hours and half a bottle of vegetable oil to get the stickiness out but man was she gorgeous when I was done.  Fluffy and soft and completely groomed.

We didn't take any measures to prolong or end her life, mostly because it was her nature to not like anyone else around.  Most people didn't even know we had a second cat, so it seemed unfair to drag her to the vet and put her through that stress.  I decided that passing away quietly at home would be best for her.  Of course if she was in pain we would have had to do something else, but she didn't appear to be.

Yesterday my middle son was over and saw that she wasn't doing well (she's been failing for a couple of weeks) so he wrapped her in a towel and just held her.  It was tender and touching and I am so glad he did it.  Today when I came home for lunch she was clearly failing fast and was on our basement floor on an old towel.  I covered her up and petted her and told her it was okay and she could let go.  When I got home tonight I couldn't bring myself to go to the basement but R checked on her when he got home and she was gone. I hope it was peaceful and she was warm.  Goodbye our sweet Little Mary.