Several months ago, Kimberly’s kitty, Ralph, was diagnosed with congestive
heart failure, and he has been on a slow decline ever since. Kim had him on
medication, which helped for a while, but these last few weeks, he’s gone
downhill so severely that we had to make the difficult decision to end his
suffering this morning. We took him to the vet here in Martinsville, where
they were very compassionate and understanding. He’s gone now.
Ralph was one of a pair of brothers that Kim adopted about eight years ago
(his brother is Rufus, who is doing well). Ralph was one precocious kitten,
outgoing and gregarious. As he got older, he became far more mellow and
sometimes reclusive. But, like all our cats, he was loved and perhaps insanely
spoiled.
Ralph didn’t really meow; he quacked. Sometimes, he’d be somewhere in the
house, lying around or wandering about, quacking like a duck. I think
hearing that distinctive little quack is one of the things we’ll miss most.
Outliving our pets has got to be the hardest part of pet ownership. We still have
four other cats, none of whom are particularly young. So, it’s
pretty much a given that we’ll go through this who knows how many more times.
But it’s always worth it. The memories of little Ralph are precious to us,
and, thankfully, we have a vast collection of cat pictures, Ralph being
prominent among them.
Rest well, buddy.
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