Orange cats make the very best friends (missing our amazing Jacob)

Our family is missing a very very special set of orange paws.

We lost Jacob last week.

It wasn’t entirely unexpected.  A few weeks back we brought our beloved orange cat into our vet for a checkup having noticed that he’d lost a bit of weight.  With the move and all, I guessed it was stress.  Worst case scenario, I figured, his tapazole dose maybe needed tweaking (since we already knew that our happy kitty had a rather hyper thyroid.)

Sadly, it wasn’t either of these (relatively easily fixed) problems.

Jacob was whiskers-deep in kidney failure.

I cried when our vet told us the news.  I knew what this all meant.  Many years ago Sweetie and I had lost another cat, Harry, to chronic renal failure and it was awful and heart wrenching watching the disease progress and gradually eat away at our furbabe.  But, with frequent sub-q fluids and a special diet and a little extra care, Harry had lived a relatively normal and quite happy cat life for several months following his diagnosis.

With Jacob, however, there was no gradual-ness to the disease.  Jacob was dying.  Rapidly.  His kidneys had almost entirely stopped functioning.  In a little over three weeks, we watched our amazing, outgoing, vocal, beloved Jacob waste away to fur and bones.  Fluids didn’t slow the progression of the disease at all.  He was a brave little orange cat – he tolerated twice daily meds and patiently let us poke and prod him – but we could tell he was quickly getting sicker and sicker despite all of the pills, all of the fluids, and all of our love.  He stopped being our playful awesome orange cat.  He stopped eating.  He became withdrawn and quiet.  And he smacked his lips constantly – a sign we knew meant that he felt nauseous.

So we made a heartbreaking decision.

Jacob is no longer sick.

One lazy Sunday morning, a long long time ago, when Jacob was a very new addition to our family (having been recently rescued from the evil neighbour across the street – aka “Bubba” – who [much to our delight] suddenly up and moved one day, but [much to our horror] left his adorable and outgoing orange cat behind to fend for himself), Sweetie and I were listening to the CBC and a song by local artist Norm Hacking played.  It went like this…

ORANGE CATS

Best friends can come
In lots of shapes and sizes.
That’s why they’re always
Such wonderful surprises.
Mine has four legs
And a lot of orange fur.
He tells me life is great
With the world’s loudest purr

His name is Syd
And when his owner moved away
He came a-knocking
At my door one day.
He said “I sure need a home
Oh, won’t you let me in?”
‘Cause orange cats
Make the very best friends.

chorus
Well, they’re not in it for the food
Not in it for the money.
Just give their chin a scratch,
Let them sleep where it’s sunny.
You don’t need a turtle
Or a gerbil or a bunny
‘Cause orange cats
They make the very best friends

It’s been nearly 20 years
Since he came to stay.
He’s been my best friend
In so many ways.
From a handsome young mouser
To a wise old man,
Syd, the orange cat,
He’s been my very best friend

Over the past eleven orange fur-filled years, I’ve sung the line “Orange cats make the very best friends” often to my Jacob (I wanted to make sure he knew just how much he was loved.)  On Tuesday I whispered this same line to him as I said goodbye.

Orange cats really do make the very best friends.

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