The Flow of Time

Time passes so strangely. I can't believe it's been almost an entire year since I last blogged! Wow! Yet time has moved a bit strangely for me. Fast one moment, slower than molasses the next. I blogged a lot last year about Elvis and his journey with cancer. Yet this year I never said one word about my husband's beloved cat, Bugsy, and her passing. Nor of our Border Collie, Cocoa, and her unexpected bout with bladder cancer. So I'm here to rectify the situation.


Bugsy was a Mackeral Tabby we got when we were still in the apartment. I felt our cat at the time, a Japanese Bobtail named Alley, was lonely, so I hied myself down to the complex manager's office and asked her if I'd have to pay more on the pet deposit if I got another cat. She told me to wait a moment, then left the office. When she came back, she had Bugsy in her hands, and held her out to me.

"This cat has been bugging all of us over here each night, begging for handouts. She's yours." Yah!!! No extra money involved! Score! But there was a down side. She insisted on using the doorjambs to sharpen her claws! No amount of yelling, squirting, coins in a soda can or slingshot rubber bands could dissuade her from this little action. No amount of scratching trees or other man made inventions for cat claws would work for her, so I ended up having her declawed. My husband had to replace a couple of pieces of the doorjambs, so he was happy with this, but it took Bugsy a little while to forgive us.

We soon noticed Bugsy getting a bit...well...bovine in shape. So off we went to see if she was pregnant. The vet said it felt like it, and with careful thought, we decided it would be better for all of us to just have her spayed. I just didn't have the time to deal with kittens on top of my job at the time. Surgery was scheduled the next day. But the next day the vet called me at work with good news and bad news. Good: she WASN'T pregnant, but constipated. Bad: She'd already had the surgery!! Sigh.

Bugsy in one of her favorite sleeping positions.

Years passed, we bought our own home and moved in, more years passed. Then one day Bugsy came staggering down the hall like she'd been in a liquor cabinet! Her eyes were crossed, her head bobbed, and she couldn't walk straight and could barely even stand! Off we ran to the emergency vet! Nystagmus was the diagnosis, also called Lizard Disease for cats in the South and Florida who get this, mistakenly thought caused by eating the little lizards. Nothing we could really do for her. Sigh. A month or so later, she got it AGAIN!!! The vet had never seen a cat get it twice! Evidently Murphy's Law not only lived in me, but my animals as well! Poor Bugsy got over both bouts of Nystagmus, but the second one left her with very slightly crossed eyes for the rest of her life.

Over the years, Bugsy developed diabetes, where I got a crash course in giving injections and pilling. The vets and techs at the feline clinic just adored her, as she was the perfect patient. I'd come in with Bugsy wrapped like a kitty burrito in her blanket, and they'd all just love all over her. Bugsy had to have pills, then shots, at specific times of the day, and she quickly learned to remind us if we were late! The time changes twice a year were hell on all of us!!

Another favorite position

Then she developed high blood pressure. I thought, Puh-LEEZE! Hasn't this poor cat been thru enough??? Yet she continued like everything were normal. Through all the dosage changes and adjustments, she was normal. The vet loved to see her as she was never phased by anything. Well, she was bothered by ONE thing...

We rescued a parakeet from someone who thought it a terrific idea to clean the birdcage with a vacuum cleaner! The bird quickly fell in love with Bugsy, going to her every time we let him out of the cage. He would have loved nothing better than to hang out with Bugsy. But since the other cat thought he was on the menu, we had to put him away each time for his protection. The bird worried Bugsy: she'd never had what looked like lunch stalk her before! It was too funny to see a cat run from a little bird!

Yet another favorite position!

Bugsy loved to sleep on her back. In fact, she is the cat in the photo at the top of my blog. But as she got older, and gaunter, she had to change and even lose some positions. Yet she was like a Timex: she just kept ticking. She accepted that she needed shots, she accepted that she needed pills, she accepted the trips to the doctor. It was the rhythm of her life.



She accepted Cocoa when we acquired her as a rescue. Cocoa took to sleeping in the hall outside our bedroom at night, trying to keep the cats out of the room. Bugsy would just walk right past her, while the other cat was cowed.

Oh, yeah. One other thing did annoy her. She could no longer clean herself, so she was given dry baths, and towelette baths, and foam baths, and the occasional bath in the kitchen sink. She hated baths! But she just became an oily mess if I left her alone. I'll probably be like her when I get old. I like bathing myself, dang it!

Towards the end, she started urinating in inappropriate places. And the other two cats started picking on her, sensing the end was near. She was kept prisoner on the couch, so I had to learn how to clean up urine from the cushions. Nature's Miracle, and rubbing alcohol. This is straight from the vet. NM handles one of the two fatty enzymes in cat urine, and rubbing alcohol handles the other fatty enzyme. That gets the smell out. It really works, thank goodness!!! So thanks, Bugsy, for helping me learn how to clean up cat urine!

Bugsy handled the end of her life the same way. Because of her diseases, her body was failing her. We figured she was approximately 16 years old, which was awesome, per the vet, with her having both diabetes and high blood pressure! But body parts were failing, and we were now keeping her alive instead of keeping her healthy. She was now in pain. I called my good friend and neighbor to come, and husband drove as quickly as he could from work. Bugsy was surrounded by family when she took her final breath.


Bugsy was given a firy sendoff, just like Elvis. Family around the firepit, alcohol in hand, toasting that which was Da Bugs! Much tears from all, and stories of her escapades over the years. She was even a calendar kitty for the clinic, and on hubby's birth month! They couldn't have done it any better!

My pets are teaching me many things now. Life goes on no matter what. Just because you're sick doesn't mean life just stops. You can still live, even if you're dying. And they love me, no matter what. I love them, too.