I Surrender! Options

[I miss mouses]

I miss u mouses...

Tomorrow you will have been gone for 8 months. When I first joined this site I remember reading other pet memorials. As the months went on, the memorials got shorter and shorter. With tear filled eyes I could see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. There was such a difference between the first posts and the 7, 8, 9...month posts. I often use to think it was sad too, like maybe some people really did move on. I didn't want to move on, not yet anyway. Many had new pets and were enjoying life again. I had just lost you, it seemed impossible. My baby gone....FOREVER. I couldn't breathe. I did not want to live one single day without you. Death had found us, and I was so angry. I lost my best friend. I lost my happy place. How was I to face this world without you? I continued to read those posts, and hung on every word. Pages and pages of people who lost a bond as strong as ours.

When I first went to write today I was going to write a simple, "I love you Mouses." I paused at the blank screen, and remembered what I had thought of people like me at the beginning. I was now them, but I realized something. We aren't writing so little because we love or miss you all any less. We didn't forget you. From my point of view, I have decided we write less because we have been defeated. Death won. I don't quite call it acceptance. I accepted your death a long, long, time ago. I call it surrendering. Surrendering to death. I wrote before about how exhausted I am. I am exhausted Mouses. I have cried endless tears, lost too much weight, lost too much sleep, and have been trying to save you for the last 8 months. I can't save you. I can't bring you in sooner. I can't do anything. I have said, thought, and wrote every single thing there is to say. I can't change one single thing. I lost you. I really lost you. I stand alone in a big world without you. I wish you didn't have to go, but you did. I wasn't done, but somebody else decided I was. I guess that's why it hurts so much. I didn't just lose you (which alone is awful enough). I lost my closure with you. Where is our long goodbye that I assumed we would have? Why my soul kitty? Why out of all my cats, did you have to have the sudden ending?

I love you Mouses. I miss you. I have been through all the stages of grief. I am now left with just missing you. I finally learned to be happy for you. I am glad your tummy no longer hurts. I am glad you can breathe again. I am happy your legs aren't collapsing on you anymore (you looked so confused). My kitty, my baby, I wish there was another way to ease your pain, but there wasn't. When I hug Buddy it is for you sometimes, can you feel it? You have passed the baton. Your job of emotionally supporting me is now over. Did you send him to me? Did you die to save his life? You knew I would be the person to bring him back to life. He is very happy now, he is no longer hurting. I would rather have you, but he is a wonderful substitute for you. I sometimes feel like he now shares his body with your soul. He has brought back so much of what I missed about you. He sounds like you, looks like you, and now acts like you. He hounds the pantry like you. He runs around spastically like you (and hops around like a bunny). He is food and water obsessed. He wakes me up in the morning. He sits behind me while I type (he is behind me right now...exactly where you would have been). He gives me that stare, like I am supposed to read his mind. He is a chicken like you were. Like you, he flies through the house when he hears the dishes make that sound, or when a can is opened. Best of all (like you) he follows me everywhere. I miss you by my side. When you died I felt like a part of my body was missing. I had lost my shadow. Buddy has brought it back to me.

I will never be over the loss of you. I will never forget you. You are very, very close to my heart. I love you my sweetheart, always and forever. Goodbye my Mouses. I love you. I miss my old life...I really do.

8 months closer to seeing that face...

[jasonsmom]

Your post brought tears to my eyes. I lost 2 cats this year, and I know they are gone forever, but I still keep thinking I will see them stroll around the corner. They never do. I have 2 new cats, but it's not the same. I miss the old guys, I wish they could come back, but I know they never will, so I will really need to let them go. But I still can't do it. I want them back. Even though I knew they were sick at the end, and couldn't go on.

May we remember them forever.

[I miss mouses]

Your post brought tears to my eyes. I lost 2 cats this year, and I know they are gone forever, but I still keep thinking I will see them stroll around the corner. They never do. I have 2 new cats, but it's not the same. I miss the old guys, I wish they could come back, but I know they never will, so I will really need to let them go. But I still can't do it. I want them back. Even though I knew they were sick at the end, and couldn't go on.

May we remember them forever.

Thank you for sharing your feelings with me. I am sorry you lost both of your babies this year. Life just doesn't seem fair sometimes. I hope it brings you some comfort knowing they're together again. I kept thinking I'd see Mouses appear on the bed again, be waiting by her water dish again, and hear her talking away again. Then I moved. I am still not sure if this is a good thing or not. It was a little more painful living in her/our home, but I still think I would rather be in her home. Even though I knew she would never appear, I still liked looking at where she always was. Forever cherish those areas they used to be in.

You will let them go when you are ready. Don't rush it. One day it will just happen. It's really, really hard, letting go of the best part of our lives. We will always miss our old life. We just have to treasure that happy time, and not be afraid to fill our lives with love again. It doesn't mean we love them less, or miss them less. It is a very stuck feeling. The two choices we are left with after they leave us are not great. We can travel through life depressed, or we can try and make the best of the time we have left here. Even when I accept it, even when I surrender, I still feel unsettled. I will never feel the same. We will be happy again, but we will never be the same.

They live in our hearts. We will never forget them. I'm sure you've experienced seeing family that you haven't seen in awhile. When you see them it is like no time has past. We will greet our babies one day, and it will be like no time has passed at all. For now, our new babies deserve a piece of our heart. Even if for now, it is just a small piece.

Take Care, Chris