León And 'hensley The Cat' Options

[Diana]

Dear Bob,

I am so sorry to hear about your two losses. I never had a parrot myself, but I had several budgies over the years, and a rabbit when I was a teenager.
I hope that when Stanley Sue died she did so at a ripe old age, and at least had a happy life to look back to. Parrots, as far as I know, can get quite old, can't they ?
How old was Walter when he pass away ?

I agree with you that time does eventually purge certain images and memories. But I find that goes for the bad as well as for the good ones.
With León is hasn't been so long yet, but since I lost my young tom cat Cicero in 2002 ... it was after seven months of illness, force-feeding him medicines (almost as you did) .. I really must make an effort to remember him - how he was in life (unless I look at pictures of course).
My most vivid memory of him is still the last hour at the vet's. We took him to be examined (again), but I had already seen the signs at home and over the past few days ... the shortness of breath, the bloated belly .. it was FIP. When we left home I already guessed I would bring back a corpse.
They extracted some liquid from his belly to confirm the diagnosis, and the way he looked at me, the way he dug his claws into my shoulder when I took him into my arms to wait for the result ...
Then that final decision, the anaesthetic that wouldn't work and then 45 minutes where I held him to my chest under my jacket and he was still looking around. Then another shot that hurt him so bad that he struggled .... and finally he passed out. I remember that I watched his tail swish ever more weakly until it stopped and I thought 'now it will never move again' (he was a beautiful long-hair Norwegian forest mix - with a bushy tail).
I laid him down on the table and the vet gave him the final shot .. and I bent down to his head saying 'Ciao, Bello' (he was Italian; from a shelter in Rome) ... and then it was over.
After over a year and a half THIS is what I remember .. still.

León didn't have to suffer so - I hope. He was in the prime of his life, healthy and all.
A different situation. And yet .. both of them taken at such a young age.
I know quite a few people who work at shelters or look after strays. And they are confronted with such tragic deaths all the time. I am not sure I could do that.
The most common thing you hear is 'You save some - you lose some'; and I guess that is what you have to tell yourself every single day in order to keep going.
In comparison to that I am 'well off' with only these few charges of mine to look after. Maybe I should stop 'complaining'.

Thanks, Bob, and all the best to you.

Love,
Diana

[Diana]

Bob,

this is Cicero (attached jpg file)

Love,
Diana

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[Diana]

A Farewell.

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[Saki & Freyj...]

You know what I think it is -- I think it is the noise, and the way human babies and fur babies fill up a house with their presence and their -- NOISE. And when you don't have kids -- or you lose so many fur babies as quickly as we did -- the house seems to QUIET and empty. Whereas, if you at least have human kids around still making noise, then the quiet does not get to you as badly...

I dunno.

Beth: I still cry in my grief. But even though it changes over time, I can remember when I really did think I was losing my mind with the pain. I really wondered if I would ever STOP crying (I mean like -- stop even for a few minutes). This board helped me so much, I plan to be around for a long time -- in hopes of helping others. But thank you for the kind words.

Love to all,
Jennifer