Chewy :-(

Something bad happened last night.

As a quick back story, I was married for 7 years and when we first got married, we got a kitten (Pepper) who was a cute grey tabby.  Soon after we divorced, Pepper suddenly had a seizure and died at age 7 and it pained me a great deal - you may remember my blog about it.  That was about 2 years ago, and since then I've wanted a pet but wasn't quite ready to take that on, but the feeling was increasing.   It's a risk taking on a pet because, they always pass away at some point. 

A week and a half ago, I went to Petco during adoption day on that Saturday and adopted a kitten that I was drawn to.  A cute grey tabby that seemed to take to me quickly - this tabby had longer hair and had hair coming out of his ears in the cutest way.  I was so excited and a little apprehensive at the finances because I'm currently not secure financially but things are looking up, so I took a risk.

The next day, Sunday, I was concerned that my new kitten seemed to be breathing hard but I still went through the process of naming him.  I named him Chewy after Chewbacca - the gentle, crazy hair fellow that would be a companion.  But I remained concerned about his breathing and that night I called a pet hospital - they said it was normal, so I tried to relax.  But, over the last week, he didn't eat much and got skinnier and the past couple days his breathing seemed to get worse and he seemed to become more lethargic.

So, last night, I brought Chewy to the vet and they looked at him and were also concerned about his breathing.  So, they took X-Rays and showed the film to me - it wasn't good.  His entire chest cavity showed up white on the X-Rays - they said it was due to fluid all around and potentially in his lungs and gave me the prognosis:  Chewy was in bad shape.  For a grown cat, this would be thought unusual and they'd do some more tests, but at his age they said he either had serious heart problems or FIP and that the prognosis was bad.  Even if they drew liquid off his lungs, it was almost certain that he'd continue having problems and die.  They were caring at the vet and talked through the options, but the ultimate suggestion was that it would be cruel to keep him with certain death right around the corner at all times.

So, after a week and a half, when I'd just opened up my life to a kitten and already grown attached and loved him, Chewy was euthanized, gently, with me present last night November 17th. 

And it sucks.

:-(

RIP Chewy, I'll miss you.