Janis
Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:49
We were sitting in bed, doing a crossword (on the computer tho, so it doesn’t make us old) having given Janis her tablet. Janis has been on tablets now for a couple of years because of a kidney problem. Janis was seventeen. Janis was our cat.
A couple of years ago, just before we moved, she developed a massive thirst. She would drink so much water that it was obvious something was wrong. We took her to the Cat Clinic and Patti said that it was something to do with her kidneys and that it was quite common in cats of her age. She told us that she could live for years and years on these tablets as long as there were no other complications. She was right.
Janis was a strange and loveable little puss. She had a funny voice, more of a quack mixed with a croak. She had no teeth. In early life she had to have all her teeth out because she had gum decease. She was a great goal keeper. We used to throw little screwed up balls of silver foil across the floor and she would chase them and flick them around. Not really unique. But she would also sit about five or six steps up the stairs and if you threw the ball past her she would save it. Literally, she would get up on her back legs and save it. She was better than David Seaman back in those days.
She did have her annoying points too. She would meow far to early in the morning. We had to shut her in the living room so that we weren’t woken to early. When we moved we shut her in the kitchen at night because she had a litter tray in the conservatory and food in the kitchen. You could still here her meowing and over the last twelve months she developed a full-on wailing sound that usually only horny cats make. It was both extremely annoying and funny at the same time. We often caved in and let her out.
She used to love being outside. Being stolen from a farm in Wales – by my lovely wife Sue – she had a yearning to be out. That’s fine but cats fight. Cats get injured and need veterinary attention and if you have a cat you will well know that vet bills can be very expensive. So, we kept her in at night, hence the noise. In the summer months it was almost imposible to get her to come in. Evenings were often spent scrambling around under bushes with a torch to try and find her. She was black with a small bit of white. Her pupils were broken, what I mean is that they were constantly dilated, so the evening was probably better for them.
Anyway, I digress. We kept her in and she howled. When we moved, the neighbour hood cats were different. They are quite big and bully-some around these parts. They would come in and steal her food. I tried to think of loads of methods to keep them out but nothing worked. She used to lie in wait under the rose bush and ambush them. Many a time was she seen boxing another cats ears after she had cornered them. And she was smaller than most too.
As she deteriorated, we started keeping her in and only letting her out when we were at home. She stopped venturing out of the garden and would mosey around for a little while and come in. We started letting her sleep upstairs later on because we could hear her in the kitchen anyway! There were glasses of water dotted around the house and although I complained about the smell there were bowls of food dotted around as well. The trouble is that the condition she had would make her thirsty and nauseous at the same time.
We tried her on all sorts of food and invariably had to throw it away untouched. She would go through periods when she was better and bad ones too were she wouldn’t eat for a week.
We used to do group hugs. Janis, Sue and me used to hug. It was nice. We all felt safe. She would know when you weren’t feeling well. I don’t mean man-flu, I mean when you were feeling really crap with full blown flu. She would come and sit so close you got too hot. But she was there. And that was nice.
Half way through the cross-word we heard a strange noise from the room next door. We rushed in and Janis was having a seizure. Sue looked really distressed. I sat with Janis while Sue rang the emergency vet. Janis came back round but seemed a little confused as you would expect. Twenty minutes later we were at the vets. The journey was uncomfortable. We were worried and Janis was silent. This is not normal for Janis. She usually makes a hell of a din when we are in the van.
Anyway, after a short wait we were seen. We explained what had happened and about her medical condition. The vet was a quietly spoken gentle woman from Australia or somewhere around there. She examined her and found that her liver was also enlarged and that she was very dehydrated. She explained that she could do some tests to see if she needed glucose or something but she didn’t sound too hopeful.
After a bit Sue said ‘Would it be kinder to put her to sleep?’ Although the vet suggested other things she could do, she wasn’t giving us the opinion that that was the answer and that putting her to sleep would not be the wrong thing to do at this stage.
After deliberation and some last cuddles, Sue decided that it was time. We stayed with her while she slipped away and then we went home to an empty house.
She has had a fabulous life. She was dearly loved and will be sorely missed. Rest in peace Janis, we love you x
Comments
This is a lovely writeup of Janis' life, I really enjoyed reading it - although it did move me to tears in the end.
Well done and yes, R.I.P. Janis xxx