Watched Moulin Rougue again tonight and this line is stuck in my head, but not because of the movie...

It's 3:10 in the morning, and we are just back from the Emergency Vet on Queens Boulevard. Our younger 9-year old cat, Lizzie Boo was put to sleep tonight.

I've been lucky in my 38 years. Whenever a pet has died, it's been taken care of by someone else. This is the first time I've ever had to deal with it directly or make the decision. That's a lot tougher than I thought.

But several days ago, our spritely cat became less spritely. I had noticed her hanging by the water bowl yesterday.. then today.. and she was looking skinny. And suddenly she didn't talk anymore the way she does. And lastly she didn't come running at the shake of the treat bag... and tonight after trying every imaginable food and water combination, I decided we had to take her in. I don't know what I was expecting.. a miracle, perhaps. Seems a bit crazy all over a cat, but there it is and I know the pain in my heart.

One eye was dialated, the other not. Something serious was wrong with her and she was essentially going to starve to death and honestly, we couldn't let that happen. We took a few parting pictures, said our goodbyes as if she could somehow understand, and that was that.

But the Lizzie of my memories will always be the one I rescued from Chinatown through adoption, the one that was here through my divorce, my breakup with Sierra, my many months of healing my toe while stranded on my couch, and as being the adopted step-cat to my wife for the past two and a half years. Lizzie was a bunny hopper when it came to chasing treats, and she would gladly push Luna out of the way to get to them. She was a good lap cat who didn't mind being picked up or cradled, and although I'm surprised by it, I find her loss terribly gutting.

I knew 2008 was too good a year to be true...
Lizzie, you will be missed. My one regret is that I never got to LOLCat her properly. There's a beauiful picture of her over at auralee's journal, which frankly I don't have the strength to hyperlink.