#139 - A Eulogy for Thor

Thor Odinson Gillespie: 09/01/2013-02/05/2014.


Yes, that was his name - and yesterday Melissa and I had to take him to see the vet for last time.

October 13th, just 3 months and 24 days ago, Melissa and I walked into a pet rescue/adoption center to look at their kittens. My heart grew three sizes that day. "two or none" I said to Melissa, and she immediately picked out a beautiful, dark kitten from a cage in the corner of the room. We called her "Loki", and I set out to find her a proper brother. I stared into a large cage on the opposite side of the room and watched a half dozen little golden kittens play for 20 minutes. One particular little guy saw me kneeling outside the cage, eye level with him, and got curious. He walked over to the wall of the cage and begged me to play. I opened his cage, picked him up, and gave him a name.

 He was 5 weeks old.


We took Thor and Loki back to their new home and they took to their roles perfectly. Loki won over the affection of the authorities while Thor was busy exploring and fighting the claw of the weird beast that lay on the other side of the door. I took this as a good sign. I wanted Thor to knock Moose down a peg or two. It was another good sign that Thor was constantly practicing his craft.
\

 The next 3 months were perfect. Thor and Loki played all day when there wasn't anyone there to keep them company. Moose and Thor grew to be friends - much to my chagrin. More importantly, though, Loki and Thor grew to be brother and sister.


I am not a cat person. I don't love "cats", in general... but I do love a couple of cats - and of the two of them, Thor was always my little guy.


Around a month ago, Thor's body began changing dramatically. At first, we thought he was just eating like a champion; but it soon became obvious that something was wrong. Melissa took him in to see the vet over her day off.

It's never a good sign to walk into a room to find someone crying.

Feline Infectious Peritonitis is a virus that affects 1 in 5000 cats. It's not curable, it's fatal, and it's nobody's fault. It's just a thing that happens.

The past month was difficult. We knew what was going to happen, but I'm not sure that made it any easier. Thor slowly grew bigger and bigger and became capable of less and less. About a week ago, he quit playing. Two days ago, he quit eating.

 Just before we left to see the vet, Loki groomed him. She hadn't done that for a while. I don't think she knew what was going on with him or how to react, but it seemed like she knew it was going to be her last chance. Moose walked near Thor as we were getting ready. Thor, who had been completely immobile and uninterested with the world, reached out and grabbed his tail as he walked by. He pulled Moose's tail under his head and used it as a pillow. The last thing he did in his home was show Moose who's boss. 

 I love my little guy.

 Melissa and I were both there to say goodbye and see Thor off as he made his transition from this life to whatever happens next. He passed away with his paw in my hand, while Melissa scratched his head just like he liked.

His life was much too short... we will have to take solace knowing we gave him the best one we could while we had him.

 We're going to miss you, buddy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#258 - Feature: Notetaking Platform Anxiety

Image
Motto: Writing for Me, by Me Melissa is going back to grad school, she's taking her Mac Air & iPad with her & utilizing Microsoft OneNote. While she was setting up her notetaking environment, I started thinking about how I would architect my "idealized system for handling graduate school". Fair warning, this is a bit of an epic. A system for succeeding in higher education is defined in several broad categories: What would I physically bring with me to class? How would I take notes that are relevant immediately and in the future? How do I manage time & tasks? Answering these questions is the purpose of this Column. I'm going to do so both "in general" and given my specific (more interesting to me, but less interesting in general) case. 1. What would I physically bring with me to class? Obviously I would bring with me a bag. I'd probably just keep my current messenger bag for simplicity sake. Anything could work. In all
Read more

#42 - Life, The Universe, and Everything

Image
Motto: Don't Panic. BSOD My current computer is crashing on a multiple-times-per-day basis now. It's a little over 4 years old and has been needing to be put to rest for a while. Given that I know technology and what-not, I've decided I am going to build my next computer myself. Seems obvious now, I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It's going to be built specifically to suit my needs. This essentially means I'm going to build a computer specifically for video editing. There will be more on this at a later date... I have a couple of Nexus devices I want to get before the computer time ever comes. Having a job and money is so much better than college was it's not even funny. Whoever said "college is the best time in your life" must have not went through an engineering program. Don't get me wrong, college as great... but would I rather be doing that than what I'm doing now? No fricken way. Most negative words seem to st
Read more

#22 - It's my party and I'll cry to get attention.

Image
Motto: Two days ago, I was 23. Then I was 24. I aged one year in a day. Yesterday was my birthday. A few friends of mine helped another friend of mine move from Lawrence to Kansas City. The trip up there was hot and windy and stressful. We lost a pillow out of the back of the truck ( not entirely my fault), but otherwise had no casualties. The rest of this story will be told in bullet-point fashion: We relaxed in the air conditioner. We ate Minsky's pizza. We held the first meeting of my secret society that has been held in probably a year. Nobody knows that but me. We threw marshmallows into each other's mouths. We eventually built a slingshot and started using it instead of throwing them. We walked around a really nice apartment building. We were denied access to the pool or the movie theater room on account of them being previously engaged. We got lost (mildly lost) driving around looking for a convenience store.  We saw what is apparently "the bad part o
Read more