When I looked out the window and saw Abby curled up out in the rain, I knew something was wrong. Abby has always been our fair-weather cat, only venturing outside to bask in the sun on our porch. She didn’t even move when I called her to come inside. Finally I ran out into the rain and scooped her up, instantly shocked at how thin she was. Despite being dirty, wet, and miserable, she purred in my arms. I brought her inside, cleaned her up and brought her some food and water. While I knew she wasn’t quite herself, I was happy to see her eating and vowed to keep an eye on her. She spent the entire day resting on our window seat. Ana would periodically walk up to her and say, “Wake up, Abby!” I kept having to tell her that Abby wasn’t feeling well and she needed to rest. To which Ana replied, “Abby hurt…make me sad.”

She hardly moved the following day, only going upstairs to rest in front of the water bowl. When she started getting sick and could no longer keep down the little bit of food and water I had seen her consume, I finally admitted it was out of my hands and took her to the vet. Upon seeing her the vet said she was severely dehydrated, but would need to run some tests to find out why. They hooked her up to an IV to get her some fluids and I sat in the waiting room while they ran some blood tests. When the vet called me back into the room I knew it wasn’t good. She told me Abby was having problems with her kidneys, among other things. They would need to hospitalize her, keep her on the IV, and run some more tests.

For awhile things were looking promising, as she was eating and drinking (the same mistake I made!) and had a very happy attitude, purring and loving on anyone who came near her. But when they ran the tests the following day, the numbers were worse rather than better. It was obvious that she was in end stage kidney failure. Her body couldn’t fight anymore. It came on hard and fast, but we kept her comfortable and did everything we could do. It just wasn’t enough. On Saturday afternoon we loaded up into the car, and went to the vet’s office to say good-bye to Abby.

When we walked in she was happy to see us. Purring instantly. But she didn’t have the strength to move, so we just petted her and told her we loved her. Ana crawled into the cage, laid her head on Abby and said, “Bye-bye Abby. Love you.” Ana is doing ok with the whole thing, because she obviously doesn’t understand what happened. Every time she asks for Abby it breaks my heart to try and explain that Abby was really sick and that she won’t be coming home.

Simeon and I have had Abby for over nine years. She was the very first pet we had together. Abby made us a family. We took her in when she was abandoned on our doorstep because some neighbor kids in our apartment found her in a dumpster. That very first night we met her, could have been her last. I find comfort in the fact that the short life she had was exponentially longer than it could have been, if she hadn’t come into our lives. We loved her and she will be sorely missed.