RIP Sweet Little Zelda

You could say I met and fell in love with our sweet cat, Zelda, online. I saw her picture on the Paws and Claws Humane Society website back in early 2002. She was an all white kitten that had been abandoned with her brothers and sisters. She was so adorable I had to go see her. When I saw her, I knew I had to adopt her.

Mike named her after the princess in the popular Nintendo game, Zelda. To me, it didn’t seem like a good name for such a cute little cat. After a few weeks, the name grew on me and it seemed to perfectly fit this sweet white cat.

She quickly claimed Mike as her man. She wanted little to do with me. Zelda was not a lap cat, by any means, but she would cuddle with Mike. The only time she wanted to cuddle me was at 2:00 in the morning or as soon as I put on a pair of clean black pants. Many people didn’t even know we had a cat. She would disappear whenever people came over. It wasn’t that she was skittish; she just liked to be left alone.

Over the past year we have had issues with Zelda using her litter box. She had started to go in our entryway and on our leather reclining chair. It made me crazy. I was so tired of cleaning it up and so afraid that eventually I wouldn’t smell it and I’d be known as the lady with the house that smelled like cat pee. I threatened to have Zelda put to sleep if the behavior didn’t change. We tried a lot of things to encourage the little box and nothing helped.

It was something that was happening every few weeks and we thought it was a behavioral issue. She seemed to do it as a punishment to us for leaving her alone over a weekend. But in the past couple of weeks, it started happening every single day. Out of frustration, Mike called me and said to have her put to sleep. I had noticed her doing funny things in the days leading up to this. She wasn’t eating much. She was trying to get to my water glass on the bedside table one night. She never did that before. I found her hiding in unusual spots. Overtime, she started vomiting daily. Her coat didn’t look as shiny, had a few mats and was really greasy. She didn’t seem to be taking care of herself. This was very unusual for her and I knew that something had to be wrong.

I took her to the vet, hoping it was something simple that we could fix. I didn’t want to be the person to put her down for bad behavior. My mother in law came along, so that I didn’t have to make any decisions alone. I’m so grateful that someone was there with me. The examination didn’t reveal much other than the issues with her grooming. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on tests but I also knew I had to know if I was doing this for a medical reason or not. Thankfully, our vet tech is also my brother in law’s girlfriend. She could see my agony over this decision and offered to put the cost of the tests on her account. (As an employee, she gets a certain amount in free tests/procedures each year.) I gratefully accepted.

The tests revealed an extremely low white blood cell count. In fact, Jenny could only find four white blood cells on the sample slide. This happens for a few reasons, but combined with the other symptoms the low blood cell count indicated it was most likely Lymphoma.

My poor kitty had cancer and I thought she was just being naughty. Yes, I have a little guilt. So does Mike. When I called him to say that she was sick and that it would be a losing battle he quickly came to the vet’s office to be there.

We made the heartbreaking decision to have her put to sleep. With all my frustration with her litter box issues, I thought it would be a much easier decision. This proved to not be the case. I knew that we wouldn’t be able to give her the necessary medical attention that she needed. I knew that we had to end her pain. So, we said our last goodbyes and my sweet girl died peacefully in my arms in the afternoon of September 3, 2009.

Top Ten Things I Will Miss About Zelda

10. Her love for free cat toys. Her favorite toys were those hard plastic twist ties that you find on electronic equipment.
09. Tripping over her as she sleeps on the top stair.
08. Seeing her waiting for us in the living room window when we come home.
07. Watching her run away as Cameron would crawl to her and try to pet her (ok, more like pull her tail).
06. Our nightly ritual of filling my water glass and her water bowl with ice water.
05. Waking up at 2am with a purring kitty trying to snuggle me.
04. Finding her sleeping on my desk chair.
03. Watching her figure out how to navigate a baby gate.
02. Battling with Mike over whether or not she needs one of my good glasses for water.
01. Her unconditional love.

It’s funny, but now I can’t think of all the things she did that drove me crazy. It’s funny how quickly we forget those things.

So – rest in peace sweet baby girl. We miss you already!