We've had some great joy in our household over the past fews months but that joy has also been tempered by anxiety and now deep sadness. Our beautiful cat Mika passed away on Sunday. She was almost 16 and had been showing signs of physical decline for some time now. She suffered from a thyroid condition and she had allergies, yes strange for a cat, I know. Often she would get sick and we would take her to the vets they would patch her up and she would be back to her old self despite the fact that she kept losing weight. After her last trip to the vets though, Len and I decided that we would not take any more "heroic" measures. It was costing a fortune, the vets were really doing nothing more than running tests, and after some time she always got better. This past week Mika got sick again, we weren't sure if it was something she had eaten or a sign of her further decline. She perked up a little but by Saturday Len and I had to face the inevitable question of whether or not we were selfishly prolonging her life.
Mika was probably the best birthday present that I ever received. I had spied her at the local petshop in the Timmins mall. She was so tiny, the runt of the litter, but she had the biggest green eyes I had ever seen and when I stretched my finger through the cage, her gratitude was expressed with the loudest purring. Almost everyday after school I would get off the bus and visit this tiny ball of tabby fluff, then I would go visit my mom at Sears and campaign for her adoption. As my 16th birthday drew near, I never suspected that my mom would even contemplate my pleas, so you can imagine my suprise when that evening when the bag my mother placed on my lap began to purr. I opened it up, looked in and staring back at me was Mika. I scooped her up in disbelief, she was so small she literally fit in the palm of my hand. She was very young, to young to have been in a petshop without a mother, consequently I became her surrogate mother. We were inseparable, she slept at the nape of my neck nuzzled in my hair. I taught her to walk on a leash, and would take her with me in my friend's car, safely snug in my coat or else taking in the view from the front dash. We often said that Mika didn't know that she was a cat. She knew how to fetch, an embarrasment to our golden retriever, who never really mastered that task! She also had an insatiable love and curiosity of water. She would jump in the tub if someone was having a bath or shower, much to Gramma Colliers great shock and suprise! She swam at Ottermere, and in my parents pool, as well.
Mika was also a fairly good traveller, along her with dear companion Shadow, she has travelled from Timmins to Ottermere, lived in Thunder Bay, Ajax and Peterborough. She was extremely sweet and gentle. Most people never guessed her age correctly, always assuming her to be a much younger cat. When Shadow was still alive they would chase each other throughout the house, night and day. At night they often got so rambunctious that Len and I had to resort to shooting off Nerf dart guns in their general vicinty to scatter them into hiding. Neither of them ever really got old.
Sunday, Len and I sensed that Mika had reached that point, however. We discussed it with heavy hearts and many tears that if Mika was still with us in the morning we had no choice but to have her put to sleep. Her quality of life was gone, she was in pain and it would be cruel of us not to. Late that afternoon, I cuddled up with her and told her that if she needed to go, it was time. Around 7:30 she pulled herself up on the couch next to Caleb and lay down. I think this was her way of saying that it was time for her to go, our fur-baby was leaving.
An hour later, I was loving and holding her for that last time as she died.
Len and I never thought we would be the type to treat our pets like our children, but when you let them into your heart and give them all your love in return this becomes inevitable. Mika and Shadow were our furbabies.
As a tribute to the love that they gave us, and their inseparable friendship we will be placing Shadow's ashes with Mika this weekend. Their resting spot will be transformed into a special garden in the back corner of my parent's property.