Crossing the Rainbow Bridge - An Unexpected and sad Day

 Yesterday - September 5, 2021 began pretty much like any other typical day. - The cats were fed in the morning and had spent a little time sleeping in the bedroom before they were let out shortly before noon.

That's when things went south in a hurry. - I happened to be walking by the bathroom when I noticed a couple of our cats in there and heard the horrible sound of one of them in distress.  I found our sweet, Captain Cuddles on the floor with what appeared to be really bad constipation pains. - I quickly called Mike in to help me and we noticed that he seemed in unbearable pain and could not stand up on his back legs. - Being that there are no, "on-call" Vets in town on the weekends we knew we had to do something to get him in to a Veterinarian as soon as possible.  We called a near by Clinic (about 17 miles away) that often will take emergency calls on weekends and after about an hour of waiting they finally got back to us and told us to bring him in right away.  The Vet did not sound very optimistic about the outcome after I described his symptoms.  But we hoped for the best and prepared for the worst.

Upon arrival she explained the he had something called,  Saddle Trombus  - The prognosis was not good and in the end we opted to, euthanize him as he was in tremendous pain and the likely hood that he could survive this was extremely slim.- So with heavy hearts & lots of tears we said our good-byes to our sweet, Captain Cuddles.

 

This was the first photo we took of him when we rescued him back in November of 2009. He had wandered into the neighborhood and was being mistreated by some kids when I brought him into the house.  We had decided to find his owners since he was wearing a collar until I noticed that he had fleas & ear mites both and figured they didn't deserve to have him if they weren't going to take care of him.

 

He was a gentle and loving cat so we named him, Cuddles, which quickly became, Captain Cuddles and we finally added on to that so that he became, Captain Cuddles, Defender of the Universe!

 

He was loved by everyone who came into the house because of his sweet and loving nature.  Here are shots of Mike & I with him.

 

 
 Coleen loved him as well. He went through a lot with her.  One time he came into the room and he was all wet.  I asked her what had happened and she said,  "I baptized him! "  I ask her where & she said, "In the toilet!"  Another time she cut his whiskers off, he got locked in her toy box, and she had a private ceremony (we weren't invited so no pictures) where she married him.

 

Here are shots of them together when both we much younger.

 

 He loved sleeping and was often either on the couch, in a window, on the desk in my office, on the bed etc...here are some of his strange sleeping positions.

 

 He got along with all the different cats over the years.  I tried to find pictures of him with all of them but couldn't find one with him and our newest cat (Gidget) but here are a few of him with the others.

 

 From L-R - Cuddles & Harley, Cuddles & Pepper, Cuddles and Callie-Jo, Cuddles and Spooky Boo.

 

Cuddles and Bandit asleep in Mike's Guitar Case

 Harley, Cuddles & Spooky Boo

 

Cuddles being stalked by a giant ant.

Cuddles enjoying a box of newspaper.

Side Profile

Asleep on the Wi-Fi box in my office.

 

Sleeping on the laundry basket.

                                                               DEFENDING THE UNIVERSE!

This is the last photo I ever took of him.  I had no idea he would be gone so soon after this photo was taken.

 

 Finally one of our favorite photos of his sweet face:

                               Nov. 2009 - September 2021.

We will so miss him.  He loved to run and jump up in my arms, try to escape out the back door, head bonk us, purr, and so much more.  You left us far to soon.

Rest in Peace Sweet Cuddles.

Nov. 2009 - September 2021.