3/17/99 – 10/31/09

It’s taken me some time to finally sit down and write about my feelings about this cat.  The guy up there in that picture.  I thought he’d be around for a while.  I thought when we let Indie go, that Ollie would be here for us to shower a ton of love upon for a long, long time.

One month and one day after letting Indie go, Ollie died.

The day after we let Indie go, I moved a basket into the living room and put a soft, fleece blanket in it.  I wanted to lure Ollie into the living room to hang out with us.  Little did I know that every single day for the last month, he would spend the majority of his time.  I loved it that he took to it right away and spent time with us.  Hailey gave him extras hugs and kisses every single day and so did we.

On Halloween, my 32nd birthday, Ollie suddenly passed away.  Completely unexpected.  In fact, a week an a half later, I still have a hard time accepting it.

We were at home and had just put the girls to bed.  Eric and I were sitting on the couch and Ollie made a strange noise.  We passed it off as being “Halloween” and spooky things happen.  Then, I heard him vomiting.  This wasn’t out of the ordinary.  He was meowing for food when we got home that evening and he tended to eat quickly when he was out of food for a bit, so I figured that’s why he was vomiting.  I got up to go check on him, like I usually do when I hear that noise.  I watched him move to another part of the dining room and start to vomit again.  I stayed because he looked like he was having a hard time.  Then he laid down, in the vomit.  He never does that.  So, I went to clean it up and tried to move him out of the way and that’s when it happened.

He started to drag himself across the floor.  He wasn’t using his back legs.  I immediately thought that maybe his hip went out or his leg was broken.  He kept yelling.  He continued to drag himself across the floor and headed for the recliner, where Indie spent a lot of her time this year as she became more and more sick.  I thought he was going back behind the recliner to die.  I started to panic.  It was 10:00 o’clock at night on a Saturday night.  I had no idea what we were going to do.

Eric and I tried to coax him out from behind the recliner and he continued to yell and started to pant.  I was hysterical.  We tried to think as best as we could about what to do.  We looked up a number for a local emergency vet and I called.  They said they were there and to bring him in.

We were so worried about moving him in case something was broken.  He was very large, so it wasn’t easy to figure out what to do.  We finally got him into his carrier.  I knew at that point that Eric would not be bringing him back home.  Things seemed really bad.  Eric checked his legs and his tail and everything was limp.  We started to think that he may have had a stroke.

I placed his blanket over him, kissed him and petted him and told him I was sorry and that I loved him.  Exactly what I had told Indie.  He looked up at me.  I don’t even know if he could see me.  He was still yelling and panting.  Everything was happening so fast.  I knew he wasn’t coming home.

We were going to have our in-laws come over to stay with the girls so I could go with Eric to the vet but we just wanted to get him there as soon as possible.  So, we put the carrier into the car and Eric and Ollie pulled away.

I went inside crying and feeling helpless and in shock.  I can’t believe this could be happening.  It all happened so soon after losing Indie.  This couldn’t be real.  This had to be a bad dream.  I paced around the house.

Probably about five minutes later, my phone rang.  It was Eric.  I answered and he paused.  Then he told me that Ollie was gone.  It took me a second to realize that he couldn’t have been at the vet yet.  Ollie passed away in the car on the way there.  My heart just sank.

From that point until Eric came home with another empty carrier was an eternity.  Now our house really felt different.  Both cats were very much a part of our family and our routine.  We did so many things for the past 11 years to accommodate our furry babies and now it was all gone.  Finished.  They’re gone.

So many things we did for those cats because they were a part of our family.  It’s still so strange not to have them around.  Both of them.  Never did I think that I would lose both of my sweet, sweet cats so close together.

Ollie was ten years old.  He was born on St. Patrick’s Day and we always celebrated his birthday.  He was much more like a dog than a cat, you can ask anyone that knows us and that knew him.

He started out as this teeny, tiny little pipsqueak of a kitten:

We picked him out of the litter  because he was the “whiny” one.  And oh, was he ever the whiny one!  We couldn’t have picked out a better companion for our Indie.  For a little while, she towered over him.  I’ll never forget how he shook because he was so afraid of her those first few days.  After that, they became the best of friends (half brother and sister, as a matter of fact).  Then, Ollie just kept growing and growing and growing.  He ended up being a whopping 26 pounds!  He was a very, very happy cat and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Spending 11 years with cats who were a big part of our family and who are now both gone is a shock to the system.  We take comfort in knowing that Ollie and Indie are hanging out again, somewhere.  I guess I think they must have just needed to be together.  They were a team and they still are.  We still miss them like crazy.  It’s going to take some time to change our habits, the habits we had for so many years that included them.

We miss you, baby kitties.

I can’t believe they’re really gone.