Once we had established Aeryn in her flat, I started only keeping the door closed while we were asleep; during the day she would mostly hang around the area between her flat and Grace’s desk about a meter away. She especially liked sitting right outside of the cage, near her food, water, and litterbox, so I put a folded towel there and she would sit like an old lady on her porch. It was clear she was slipping fast, especially after she turned 21 in March; her hind legs became edematous, and though her appetite actually improved she seemed to have lost most of her bladder control because I had to change all the pads and towels twice a week. She became much quieter, and never wanted to wander far from Grace. Then late Friday night I noticed Grace holding her close; Aeryn was purring and much less fidgety than usual, and Grace told me she felt her time had come. I petted her and could feel it myself; the life was slipping away quickly, and we knew it would be that night. A little later she seemed unable to get comfortable, so Grace put her on a thick towel beside her food and water, and that was where I found her about two hours after dawn Saturday, lying peacefully where she had passed mere minutes earlier. Chekhov helped me to bury her in a little area we’d selected for the purpose, with stones above her to prevent animals’ digging. And though both Grace and I wept for the loss of our little friend, we were also both happy that she had such a peaceful departure, well-cared for and close to the humans she loved; would that all of us could leave this earth so gently.
Archive for April 18th, 2023
Diary #668
Posted in Diary, tagged animals on April 18, 2023| 2 Comments »
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
Contact Maggie
If you’d like to ask me a question, click here.
If you made a comment and it doesn’t appear within a few hours, click on this one.
If you’d like to alert me to an interesting item, use this one.
And if you have a request, bouquet or brickbat or just want to introduce yourself, this is the one for you.
A Few References
Maggie on Twitter
My TweetsBoring but necessary legal stuff
All original content on this website (i.e. all of my columns, pages and anything else which I write myself) is protected under international copyright law as of the time it is posted; though you may link to it as you please or quote passages (as long as you attribute the quote to me), please do not reproduce whole columns without my express written permission. In other words, you have to say “pretty please with sugar on top” first, and then wait for me to say “okey-dokey”.