It’s been one month since I had to put my beautiful baby boi to sleep. He was a majestic Maine Coon who went by the name Mercury.
He was my baby in the most literal sense of the word; I took him in (along with his sister) when he was barely 4 weeks old. His mama (Lyn) was a stray we’d been feeding; she wasn’t doing too well after she gave birth to her kitties, so we attempted to capture the 3 of them and bring them to a vet.
We caught Mercury first, then his sister. Not even a day later his sister was breathing unevenly and acting dazed. I held her in my arms and tried to figure out what was wrong, but soon after I felt her whole body relax, and watched her pupils dilate...you never really get over something like that. Lyn was eventually captured and rushed to a hospital; later that day we were told she had cancer throughout her whole digestive tract, and had to be put to sleep.
Mercury was the only one left, and I was determined to keep him. I bottle fed him, brushed him, cleaned his butt for him (long haired cats can get messy) etc. I loved him and took care of him as if he were my own child for the next 7 years.
It still hurts too much to type out all the details, but...Mercury went into congestive heart failure and was rushed to the ER at the end of August, woke up and made a “miraculous recovery” (both ER vets had used that phrase), and for about 2 weeks he was doing well. Then he just stopped doing basically everything. We took him back to the ER and were told he was in renal failure, which ended up being irreversible. We couldn’t let him suffer anymore, so we put him to sleep.
My mom told me it feels like she lost a child...it’s strangely reassuring to know that. It makes me feel like I’m not being dramatic when I say he was literally my baby. I dream about him all the time, and some days it gets really fucking hard. I have a small baggie containing some of his fur and whiskers, and sometimes I find myself holding it to my chest, sobbing uncontrollably. I own another kitty, and while her and Mercury weren’t too close, it’s obvious she’s grieving. She even sleeps in the same spots he used to.
Life is brief, but love is long. Rest easy my sweet baby boi.
