Pet Updates 1 | September 2022

Hi all, I'm here to give an update on my pets. I'm going to make at least one more pet updates post because I said so and don't feel like putting everything I want to say in one post. 

Without further ado, it's time for me to talk about my pets! :3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thelma

Thelma is my 10 year old little tuxedo cat. She's mine and I love her. <3

I took these pictures back in March one night. And yes, she's on my bed. She likes to sleep on my bed at night and during the day with me. 

She usually has a judgmental look on her face since she likes to judge the dog. Thelma is also still afraid of her, though she has become a little less scared in recent weeks or months. 

By the way, I scrolled through my old posts where I put pictures of her and talked about her. I can't believe I started this blog when she was only 2! She was such a baby back then (omg my heart,, 🥺). 

Actually, the first time I talked about Thelma on here might have been in 2015. Her birthday is in early February, so she could've been 3 at that point. Dang, 2014 and 2015 were so long ago. It's a little hard for me to believe. Same goes for my baby (Thelma) being a decade old now. :')

-_-_-_-

Lilly

I took these two pictures of Lilly in mid-April, right before going on the car ride back to college (if I remember correctly). 

The legs and feet in the second pic are my sister's. She was driving me back to college, so she was also leaving Lilly at home with our parents. We doubt Lilly knew we were leaving her for a few weeks. 

Oh yeah, here are basic facts about Lilly since I forgot if I properly introduced her on here: Lilly is my family's (well, technically my sister's since she officially owns her or something like that) new dog. We got her on the last day of May 2021 on the drive home from a vacation where we visited our brother in the city he lives in. She was born March 9, 2021, so she's a year old now. 1 year and *pauses to count the months* 6 months; 18 months. She still behaves very much like a puppy. Oh and she's a black cockapoo. The day we picked her up, we also got to see her parents: a black cocker spaniel mom and a golden mini poodle dad. They were also so cute and lovely dogs. 

So yeah, that's Lilly. I like to call her Silly Lilly and Crazy Lilly as well. It sums her up well. XD

-_-_-_-

**Warning: Talking about death for the rest of this post. 

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ 

To those that remember my pets, I used to talk about having another cat. Well, here's the thing (I think you can guess what)...

My family and I call our other cat any of these names: Zoe, Zo, or Mr. Zo. He entered our lives in 2008, so by 2022 he became a very old cat. We never found out his age; we could only guess. He was already an adult cat when he came into our lives (I say that because he was the one who found us; he was found in the garage one day and we kept him ever since). To keep things less messy, I'm going to refer to him as Zoe for the rest of the post. Despite the name, Zoe's male. 

... *takes a deep breath* ... Zoe died in January this year. On January 21, 2022 to be exact. Unlike with Sunshine (my family's old dog) who died while I was in college, I was home when Zoe died. I vividly remember the day and the few days leading up to his death. To this day, I sometimes have my mind reliving the day he died. It was a very rough day for multiple reasons. I might go into more details on why in another post. Maybe, I'm not sure. 

Additionally, shortly before Zoe passed away, my brother told us (the rest of my family) that Yoda (his pet chameleon) died. I liked seeing Yoda; she was so cool. 

Basically, January really sucked. It was a sad month full of pet deaths. :'(

It was also a bad month for other reasons. Let's just say that some days were very cold (single digits Fahrenheit), and the heating system (not the water heater since that was fixed a little earlier) was broken in my house. It was very cold living in the house back then. I don't miss January lmao 

Whatever, I'll explain some of it now. Ok so. The day Zoe died was especially cold. I remember having to keep myself wrapped in my heated blanket and having difficulty moving my hands and fingers since they felt frozen. I was very cold. I also kept Zoe wrapped in blankets and sometimes put the heated blanket on him on the days he was very sick and on his deathbed (he died on one of the couches). This wasn't the only very cold day though; I just remember this particularly day very well. 

On that day, some men came over our house to replace our old furnace (or whatever was broken) with a new one. Anyway, my dad was a little busy taking care of all that stuff. My mom and sister were out of the house that morning for important reasons. *breathes in, breathes out* When Zoe died on the couch, I was alone with him. I was the the only one by his side. 

... I watched him die. One moment I was holding him and he was alive (his dirty paws were becoming really cold, which is one of the first signs of a cat's death; he sometimes let out a soft cry unlike anything he ever said before). Being able to pet him and properly hold him were warnings in themselves since he was known for being touch repulsed (he hated being touched in any way despite how much time he spent time around us up close). Anyway, a little later, I petted him and gently held him again, but this time he let out a different cry than the ones he made for the last few days. This one sounded especially painful and made me begin to feel heartbroken since he was crying out his last cry of pain. The next time I picked him up, his body was limp. A short while later, he died. (I think he went into a coma right before dying; I could still feel his heart beating immediately after finding out his body went limp.)

This happened in the morning. We planned on taking him to the vet to get euthanized later that day, but he didn't make it that long. My sister and I took him to the vet the day before, and he told us that our cat would likely die the next day. Zoe was in a very bad state by that time. Unlike with Sunshine, Zoe became noticeably sick and on his deathbed in the span of a few days (2 or 3 days). 

Despite how rude and obnoxious Zoe was, I really miss him. I cried when he died. I loved him. I think I loved him the most; saw him the least as a burden. He enjoyed spending time on one of the couches (he never noticed the other new couch lmao) and watching TV with us. In the weeks leading up to his death, I have a feeling he spent even more time than usual on the couch with us. I really miss seeing him on the couch during the day and at night. I miss him. </3

This room was also the room that Lilly spent the most time in since we didn't like her going into other rooms without someone supervising her. This resulted in Lilly and Zoe spending lots of time together. Lilly enjoyed bothering him, even trying to hump him quite a few times (😂😭), but I think they became close friends. At this point, Thelma was terrified of Lilly and never hung out with her. 

To end this post, I'll insert pictures of Zoe and Lilly cuddling and sleeping next to each other on the couch in December and January. I love these pictures of them. <3 

*the couch has a cover on it; sometimes Lilly puts her toys on the couch lol

Thanks for reading. 

~ Shan / Shyrah 💖