A few years ago my mother suffered a series of mini-strokes and we had to put her in a nursing home.  At the time, my family debated about what to do with her then 15 year old Siamese Cat, Coco. 

At one point, my brother who had moved into my mother's house (where the cat was) had actually put him in the cat carrier to take him to be put down.  As he was walking out the door he got an emergency call from one of his HVAC clients and took the cat back inside and ran the call.

When I heard about this, I decided that I would take the cat down to one of my offices, which was a large warehouse, loft type of building.  Coco, who wasn't a very social cat by any means, pretty much kept to himself.  Sometimes the only way that we knew that he was there was by looking at his food dish and his litter box.

Kathy, my girlfriend, eventually wooed him to the point where he would sometimes come out to let her pet him, but that was about it.  He never really interacted with me or with anybody else at the office.

When we decided to close that office we were in a bit of a pickle as far as Coco was concerned.  Kathy already had a 9 year old Calico cat who hadn't been around other cats since she had been a kitten, but we didn't have anyplace else to take him.  We actually thought again about having him put down.

After much discussion, we decided that it was worth an attempt to see if we could introduce the cats to one another without them fighting, so we took Coco to our home.  After some time spent in the attached garage with them howling at one another through the door, we finally introduced them to one another.

To say that Pebbles (yeah, I know...we had Coco AND Pebbles) was displeased would have been an understatement!  They fought and we went through a period of them literally getting into pissing contests, but eventually they started getting along better. 

It was right after we brought Coco in from the garage that I saw one of the sweetest moments that I've ever experienced.  One day we brought my mother home from the nursing home and while she was pretty much out of it, Coco came up to her to get petted.

My mother commented that she used to have a cat that was a lot like this one and when I told her that this was her cat she said with a tone of disbelievement, "My Coco?"

For just a while the fog that my mother was living in raised and a look of recognition came over her.  She sat there and petted Coco until it was time to go back to the nursing home.  Watching them together I realized how important Coco was to my mother and vise versa.  My mother passed away not too long afterwards.

Over time and after we moved to our new home both cats started getting along better and while neither of them would admit to it, I think that both cats ended up buddying up to a certain degree.

At the new house Coco got into the habit of coming down to my office and hanging with me while I worked.  When I broke for lunch, he would follow me upstairs and we would each grab a bite to eat.  Over time, I became very attached to him.

Well, as things sometimes happen when you have an older cat, Coco's health took a turn for the worse.  While he had suffered from kidney disease, he had responded well to treatment and was actually a pretty spry cat.  Until one day a couple of weeks ago when Kathy and I got back from a weekend away and it was obvious that something was wrong with him.  While he had always been a "talker" he was now howling incessantly, sometimes as if he was in pain, sometimes as if he were simply disoriented.  He had also stopped using his litter box.

We took him to the vet and they couldn't find anything obvious that was wrong with him, but they did treat him with some antibiotics and a new blood pressure pill.  Physically he responded to the treatment, but the howling continued as did his not using the litter box.  While he would have moments of lucidity, it was obvious that he was disoriented most of the time.

So, while it was hard, we made the decision today to take him to the vet to have him put down.  Which is what I just did.

I don't know if it's because he was a living reminder of my Mother or if it was because of the fact that physically he was looking better than he ever had or maybe it was simply because I had bonded with him? Maybe because in a sense he was my brother, but I am having a very hard time accepting my decision.  I know that it was the best thing for him, but it was hard saying goodbye to him.  I'm going to miss the little guy.  He really was a good cat!

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services,  St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company.  If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com