Precious Pete

Today, we lost our good buddy Precious Pete. Of course, that was his official name, but we never called him that. He was Pete, Petey, Stinky Pete, Lazy Pete...you name it. But he was an amazing little buddy and we're really going to miss him. Pete was the cat that always wanted to be around people. There was nothing he loved more than snuggling in bed with us or sitting on our laps, and he could purr like a lawn mower.

He was old. We don't know exactly how old, but we figure in his teens. When we got him, eight years ago, the humane society said he was three; however, at his first vet visit, the doctor put him closer to six-eight. His charts at the vet listed him as 15. In the past few years his eyesight has been rough and he developed diabetes. Even though he got two shots of insulin a day, he started to go downhill in the past six months, and this weekend we knew the end was near. When Brian and Katie got home today he was having a seizure in the kitchen. We sent Katie upstairs, Brian got the carrier and some towels, and I just scratched his head as he yelled in pain/fear. It was really sad. When they got to the vet, the doctor euthanized him saying it was the end.

The weird thing is that he had an appointment tomorrow to see if his diabetes had stabilized (it's been off the charts for the past month, so he goes in for a day each week for them to monitor and adjust his insulin) and we were going to talk to the vet about euthanizing him. I guess he wanted to make sure that didn't happen. I wish Katie hadn't seen it, but she's too young to know what she saw, so that's good.

In any case, it will be a bit lonely without him. He was quite a talker and always very vocal. he was always the only cat we had that would come when you called his name. I'll miss sleeping with him and seeing his cute little speckled paws. You'll be missed a lot, little buddy.