Pip, Pop and Zoe

In January we had no pets. But we did have Dee Dee petitioning for a cat. At the end of February we adopted a 2-3 year old stray from my sister's friend. It seemed that Zoe had been left behind by the previous owners of the house. She was a beautiful, soft and chirpy cat who spoke to us as we walked by.

Then in May we decided to adopt a pair of black kittens, brothers, from a local shelter. They were named Chip and Domino, but we didn't like those names. For three days we called them Spot and Not, as one has a little white patch under his chin and the other didn't. Finally we settled on Pip and Pop in honor of the nearly indistinguishable, playful brother otters on Bear in the Big Blue House. Besides, Domino/Spot/Pip has a "pip."

By the end of June Pip had grown substantially, but Pop had not. In July Pop started losing coordination. Slowly, progressively his condition deteriorated. How do you explain that a kitten is going to die? Kittens don't die.

Dee Dee and I talked nearly every day about our options. She needed to be involved in our decision, but I wanted to be very careful that the responsibility didn't fall on her. We discussed euthanasia and what it meant. "Mom, are people ever euthanized?" She had been there when one of her aunt's cats had been euthanized. She had insisted on watching her great-grandfather's casket being lowered into the grave when she was four. She had also been there when her brother was born. She's just that kind of kid. An old soul in many ways.

We finally settled on hospice care here at home. I cried most days. Especially at bedtime. Pop was a darling kitten and it was heartbreaking to witness. One morning in August, Pop died while being lovingly held by my husband and stroked by Dee Dee. He was barely six months old.

Three weeks later, early in September, we returned home from a long weekend visiting family to discover that Zoe's "scratched eye" wasn't scratched. Soon she was nearly blind and losing coordination. And we were providing hospice care again. By then we had practice. Still the discussions and the tears flowed. She died one beautiful fall day in October. It was late afternoon and the sun was setting, we needed to get her buried. My husband was away so I headed out to our new pet cemetery and began digging. And crying.

So we have one cat now. He sometimes seems insane, literally bouncing off the walls, and he's desperate to be an outdoor cat. Yeah, we've got a fisher, foxes and coyotes all looking for a tasty treat. So unlike my kids, I'm stifling his true nature. He's the only one we've got left and he's staying in. Fortunately Christmas is near, so we've brought the outdoors in for Pip. He's got himself a piece of the big outdoors right in our living room. We just can't decorate it with anything we care about...