The Purple Pondering Giraffe: Cauchy

We said goodbye to miss Cauchy on Monday, September 14th.

She stopped eating regularly back in June, and we got her some medicine to help. She improved her eating habits only slightly, and it had to be canned food.

Then she got super picky on what canned food, it had to have gravy. But then she wouldn't eat the "meat" she would only eat the gravy part.

I found cat bisque, which is pretty much a soup. She ate that fairly regularly. I found some food that I felt had more nutrient, and I started to puree it and add more water.

Cauchy was very dehydrated, and nothing I could do would get her to drink water more than once every few weeks. Figured if I added it too her food, at least it was something.

She would have good and bad days. Good days she would eat a ton, then she would go 1-2 days without eating anything.

Blood work came back puzzling as her kidneys, despite not drinking anything, were normal. The only thing that came back out of wack was one, just one of her liver enzymes. The vet was puzzled by that because it was alone. She did feel a hard mass in her stomach, and we scheduled to have an ultrasound done. But ultimately we cancelled it. We decided that whatever was found, though it might be fixable, Jason and I weren't sure if she would survive a surgery with not having eaten in so long.

She had about a month between the vet and when she left us. She was cuddling more with me, and would have good and bad days eating wise. She did tons of sleeping.

We went to Tri-Cities for my brother and sister-in-laws baby shower. I put Cauchy downstairs so she would be able to move around without being bothered by Casper as she still despised him.

We got home Sunday and before I even got in the house ( I move a little slower right now) Jason had disappeared. I heard some noise downstairs so I headed that way, when Jason opened the door to the basement with her in his hand, saying she had been laying in the litter box.

He gave her a bath, and then asked me for the blow dryer. He sat in there drying her with that. I never went in, which while I think back it was probably a good thing. Jason knew before I did her true condition that night and he was protecting my heart.

She hung out in the bathroom for several hours, with him going in and drying her some more. He finally brought her out and put her in a box and I got her a warm towel out of the dryer. She just kind of sunk in the box, like she didn't have the energy to sit up. I knew then it was bad. She had crawled into the litter box to die.

I kept her warm and was able to hold and cuddle her. This was very special to me, as she was a stray who just walked in one day and was never big on cuddling or being held or anything. But she put her head on my shoulder and under my chin, and just let me hold her.

I told her she could leave, it would be okay.

I put her back in the box and made sure she was wrapped up warm. I heard her meow 3 times early Monday morning, and I just knew she was gone,

I got up Monday morning, and though I knew when I went to bed Sunday night it was her last night, it was still hard finding her gone Monday morning.

We had her cremated like her sister Bluebell and Fergus and she is back home sitting on the piano next to them. Our home is emptier, but she isn't suffering anymore.

Below are just a few pictures taken of her during 13 years we had the honor of sharing with her.