no more Tulu

In July, we got two kittens from our neighbors the Schwarz's. We named them Torch and Tulu. Torch is male and is orange and white. Tulu is female and is calico.

 

 

 

We've really enjoyed these cats. They're playful with each other and kind to children, and they get along with our dog Tiki. Torch and Tulu, brother and sister, loved spending time together. I enjoyed watching them play tag with each other, and seeing them nap together. They were best buds.

The day after Thanksgiving, we discovered that Tulu was injured. We weren't sure what happened though, or what was hurting her. She was walking very slowly, and shivering, and it appeared that her back hip or her back legs were bothering her. There were no cuts or broken bones that we could see or feel. It was cold, so we brought her into the house by the fire, and she laid there for a while. Then she wandered around into Ammon's closet and laid by his dirty clothes. The boys were playing Ammon's new X Box in his room, and pretty soon were complaining about a weird smell. So I went in there and took Tulu back outside so she could use the bathroom. She crouched down to relieve herself and stayed in that position for 10 minutes. I thought that was strange, but I got tired of waiting, so I finally just went out and picked her up, and brought her back into the house again. That night, we kept her in the laundry room. We had decided that we would take her to the vet the next day to see if they could help her at all. But when we got up the next morning, the laundry room was covered with piles of blood. We knew then that she had some internal issues, and the blood was coming from her stomache a/o bowels area. We thought perhaps she'd been run over by a car, but she always stayed away from vehicles and the road, so we didn't know how that could be. Then Josh came to the conclusion that she got stepped on or kicked by a cow. Our neighbor's cows had been grazing in the field right by our home, and the boys had been playing in a fort down the ditch from us. The ditch borders the field that the cows were in, and we're sure that she was following the boys, and got in the way of a cow. We knew the extent of her injuries would worsen, and that we wouldn't be able to help her. So, we decided to not take her to a vet. She died later that morning.

That's the second pet in a year that's passed away. The boys were a little sad, but Torch has taken it the hardest. He doesn't run around and play anymore--because he has nobody to play with (we got our dog Tiki from the shelter when she was one, and she was never taught to "play" apparently). Torch just lays around a lot, and he follows Tiki outside. He misses his playmate and friend. I feel badly for the little cat, and have pondered getting him a new cat buddy from the shelter, but haven't done so yet. Tulu was a beautiful cat and I'm sorry that her life ended so shortly.