Ode to Purr and our other two cats

When we returned from Burkina, we realized that our animals were costing a bit of money and we decided to look at decreasing our numbers. Since we brought an animal back with us, you can see we do a good job at limiting ourselves. :) We started giving away rabbits as we were up to 12 and that was just too many. Our plan all along had been to give them away when they had babies. So through these discussions our kids knew we wanted to decrease our animal load. Call me crazy, over 20 animals is just a bit too much.

Well, we decreased our amount this past week but not like I wanted, though Dawson made sure I knew I shouldn't have ever wanted to get rid of some animals. All three of our outdoor cats died. The culprit: rat poison from the neighbor's yard. I'm not sure really if they put it out to kill rats or to kill our cats (they had complained to our guard about the number of cats congregating in an abandoned house near them) but alas, it killed our cats. 

It started with the youngest, Purr's daughter that I watched be born. It was sad but we thought it was something random that she died of. 

But then Mittens fell sick. When Mittens passed away I noticed Purr was thinner and not as well. He wasn't eating. 

I called our friend who knows a vet. He came at night which was quite nice, gave a shot and said he'd be better tomorrow. This didn't instill much confidence. It was during that night that we realized it was rat poison but there was nothing we could do at that point. 

The next day I couldn't find Purr in the yard. I went looking for him. As I started climbing the tree I heard this awful meow. I saw him in our neighbor's yard (not the ones who put out the rat poison). He saw me so he purred. I went to him and realized he was dying. I lost it. Partly because it was sad to seem him suffer and be unable to do anything but I think there was probably some other feelings of loss that have occurred over the past few months that must have found their way to the top. But I bawled. Like a baby. The wiping your snot on your skirt kind of crying. The kind that left me with a roaring headache for over a day. Thankfully, the kids weren't at home at the time and didn't see their mother out of control. I felt stupid when our house guy came to me to see what was wrong. In a country where they aren't to cry for the death of a child, he was unsure of what to do with me crying over the cat. But we are those crazy Americans. I couldn't leave him. I would rub his head and rub his head. If I stopped to leave, he would flip his tail as if to say, "keep rubbing, stay here with me." And so I did.

Purr was the sweetest cat I have ever known. I never liked cats much. They always did their own thing, seemed a bit snobbish to be honest, so I just never got into them. But Purr changed my world. He was so incredibly sweet. He would always sit in our laps. He would suck on the boys' ears. He was a GREAT cat.

The boys did come home and were able to spend some time with Purr. They took it well overall. Right after this kiss Kenan sat up, began to cry and said, "He was my favorite." He cried for a little bit. I held him. Then they went inside to play. They asked about Purr but handled it well when he finally passed. I love the resiliency of children.

We miss our kittens and cat. The yard somehow seems empty, even with all the animals still around. Thankful for the time we had with them, especially my favorite, Purr.