Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

It's been a super sad week at our house (and in the country - right!?!).

On Tuesday, we had to say goodbye to our oldest cat, Oliver.  

It was unexpected and so sad.

As my dad reminded me, "Old friends are hard to lose"  So true.

Oliver was 12 and had been with us for so many of our family adventures.  

We adopted him as a tiny kitten in Utah.  He's lived in 5 different homes in 4 different states - Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi and Indiana.  He was a road trip champion minus the one time he escaped our hotel room in Arkansas and was running the halls.  He would always find the sunniest spots in any place we lived and loved to look out the windows.  He adjusted to adding 3 kids to the family and learned how to pretty happily coexist with them.  He slept at our feet every night.

He was our first pet.  He was my side kick for grading papers when I was teaching, working on homework when I got my masters and I was his person.  He played along with being dressed up for the holidays and then played along with the kids. He taught us that cats are better in pairs.  He was happiest when Topher was near.  They were the snuggliest of brothers.  They were just a year a part in age and bonded just like real brothers.

Oliver was always my late night buddy.  He seemed to enjoy the quiet evening just as much as me.  The kids were all asleep and he got more attention.  We nearly lost him 5 years ago right before Fletcher was born, but then he rallied for some pretty great years.  He got to know Fletcher, lived long enough to meet Leo and welcomed two more kittens to the family.  I wasn't sure how he'd adjust to Penny and Pearl, but he was the first to befriend them.  His health has been touch and go and I think he was just done.  Daily medicines and health concerns were hard on the poor guy.  He always loved a good chin rub and would purr anytime I was near.  I was his favorite human.

Fast forward to now: Earlier in the week I had noticed he was not acting like himself.  I tried to give him some extra TLC and then made him a vet appointment for the following day.  That night he slept right beside me and purred the whole night.  He seemed so lovey.  The vet determined that he was suffering and his health struggles were now causing him pain.  We'd promised him that we wouldn't put him through any more or do anything extreme to extend his life.  We made the super hard decision to put him to sleep.  

We loved him too much to see him suffer.

It was hard on Kevin and I.  Adulting is hard sometimes.  It was even harder to explain to the kids.  We all cried.  They had tons of questions and were sad to lose their buddy.  It was hard to see Topher missing his BFF of 11 years.  I'm so thankful we added the kittens to the family this Fall so that Topher now has two built in buddies.  They're eager to be his friend although he's a little skeptical of all of their love.  God was looking out for our family - the kittens have brought us lots of joy!

I'm going to do a little walk down memory lane today with some of our favorite Oliver moments.  It made me so happy to go back and see all the sweet moments we had with him.

Oliver in Utah:

Oliver + Olive:

 

Oliver + Olive & Fletcher:

Olive + 3 kids + 2 kittens:

 

 Go ahead and squeeze your pets a little tighter today :)

Saying goodbye to an old friend is never easy.  Miss you, Oliver!