Goodbye Madeline
A little over a year after saying goodbye to Autumn, today we said goodbye to Madeline. She was a friendly cat that really enjoyed a few good rubs. I asked the children what their favorite memories were of the cat; Dylan claims to remember crawling up to pet her and Sonya said petting her recently. The night before she passed the kids were petting her and taking very close up pictures, which made for a beautiful last memory. Here are the events of her life as I recall them.
After moving to North Carolina, we decided Autumn would need a companion while Lisa was in grad school and I was at work. In September of 2003 we found the SAFE Haven For Cats shelter in Raleigh. There were plenty of nice cats, but we liked how friendly one was. We were surprised to learn that she had been around for a while without any takers (three months according to her vaccines records). The staff pitched in to pay her adoption fee in hopes that someone would adopt her. I picked her up - they were surprised because she did not like to be picked up. We paid for an adoption fee for the oldest cat left in the shelter and took home our new cat. I remember the technician was a little weepy when we checked out. They called her Suzy Q and thought she was between 3-5 years old. No one knew her background prior to her ending up at the shelter. While I claimed to name her Matsui after the New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui, Lisa quickly took to calling her Matty, then Maddy, and decided her name was Madeline.
Introducing the cats was a very, very difficult time. We lived in a two bedroom apartment with a sun room. At first Autumn displayed genuine interest in meeting Maddy, but unfortunately Maddy hissed like a wild animal at Autumn. I took Maddy into the sun room and she remained very happy with me. The cats would sniff each other through the door but each time ended (very quickly) with very loud hissing and angry noises. We really considered taking Maddy back to the shelter. I spent one night sleeping in the sun room with her to try to ease her comfort level with us. After we got to the point of really considering returning her we let the cats out together to see what could happen. There were some really rough moments and a couple separations, but eventually they got a comfort level with one another. It took time for them to be able to be in the same room together, but eventually they took to their favorite past-time together; watching birds out the windows of our second story apartment. Their second favorite thing to do was chase each other around at night, which they continued to do for many years. Autumn would sometimes help groom Maddy's fur.
Like Autumn, Maddy went to Park Veterinary Hospital for routine vaccinations and teeth cleanings from 2004 through 2010, with one vaccination at North Paw Animal Hospital when we lived in north Durham in 2006. In 2005 Park Vet asked us what happened to her teeth. We learned then that she had very few teeth, but we had no idea why or how she lost them before we got her. In 2009 she had one of her canine teeth extracted, leaving her with a handful of teeth left by that point.
One of Maddy's endearing qualities was her rubbing up against your leg to beg for some petting. She really turned this up when you were wearing black pants and would leave a bunch of hair on any otherwise clean black pant leg she could find. She also really enjoyed sitting on whatever object was left on the floor around the house. Recently, she spent two days hanging out on a pair of snow pants that she seemed content to call her resting spot for several hours at a time.
During the end of summer last year, Maddy developed a laceration on her stomach. We took her to Southpoint Animal Hospital and had them excise a growth on her belly and stitch up her wounds. We learned she had a tumorous growth that she had been trying to lick away. The biopsy returned unfortunate news - a rare cancer with no known treatments. The prognosis was a rapid decline in health without any expectation of recovery, especially once the cancer spread to other organs. She proved tough and continued to maintain her normal routines until late December. We took her to Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital on a Sunday that I was sure would be her last day. The vet instead felt like she had life left in her and could live through the return of her stomach tumors, so we took her back home. Maddy continued to eat and sleep just like she had for the past few years, though her weight loss was noticeable. She passed away overnight, without any fanfare, sitting by the heat vent underneath a window. Today we took her back to Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital to say goodbye for the last time.
After moving to North Carolina, we decided Autumn would need a companion while Lisa was in grad school and I was at work. In September of 2003 we found the SAFE Haven For Cats shelter in Raleigh. There were plenty of nice cats, but we liked how friendly one was. We were surprised to learn that she had been around for a while without any takers (three months according to her vaccines records). The staff pitched in to pay her adoption fee in hopes that someone would adopt her. I picked her up - they were surprised because she did not like to be picked up. We paid for an adoption fee for the oldest cat left in the shelter and took home our new cat. I remember the technician was a little weepy when we checked out. They called her Suzy Q and thought she was between 3-5 years old. No one knew her background prior to her ending up at the shelter. While I claimed to name her Matsui after the New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui, Lisa quickly took to calling her Matty, then Maddy, and decided her name was Madeline.
Introducing the cats was a very, very difficult time. We lived in a two bedroom apartment with a sun room. At first Autumn displayed genuine interest in meeting Maddy, but unfortunately Maddy hissed like a wild animal at Autumn. I took Maddy into the sun room and she remained very happy with me. The cats would sniff each other through the door but each time ended (very quickly) with very loud hissing and angry noises. We really considered taking Maddy back to the shelter. I spent one night sleeping in the sun room with her to try to ease her comfort level with us. After we got to the point of really considering returning her we let the cats out together to see what could happen. There were some really rough moments and a couple separations, but eventually they got a comfort level with one another. It took time for them to be able to be in the same room together, but eventually they took to their favorite past-time together; watching birds out the windows of our second story apartment. Their second favorite thing to do was chase each other around at night, which they continued to do for many years. Autumn would sometimes help groom Maddy's fur.
Like Autumn, Maddy went to Park Veterinary Hospital for routine vaccinations and teeth cleanings from 2004 through 2010, with one vaccination at North Paw Animal Hospital when we lived in north Durham in 2006. In 2005 Park Vet asked us what happened to her teeth. We learned then that she had very few teeth, but we had no idea why or how she lost them before we got her. In 2009 she had one of her canine teeth extracted, leaving her with a handful of teeth left by that point.
One of Maddy's endearing qualities was her rubbing up against your leg to beg for some petting. She really turned this up when you were wearing black pants and would leave a bunch of hair on any otherwise clean black pant leg she could find. She also really enjoyed sitting on whatever object was left on the floor around the house. Recently, she spent two days hanging out on a pair of snow pants that she seemed content to call her resting spot for several hours at a time.
During the end of summer last year, Maddy developed a laceration on her stomach. We took her to Southpoint Animal Hospital and had them excise a growth on her belly and stitch up her wounds. We learned she had a tumorous growth that she had been trying to lick away. The biopsy returned unfortunate news - a rare cancer with no known treatments. The prognosis was a rapid decline in health without any expectation of recovery, especially once the cancer spread to other organs. She proved tough and continued to maintain her normal routines until late December. We took her to Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital on a Sunday that I was sure would be her last day. The vet instead felt like she had life left in her and could live through the return of her stomach tumors, so we took her back home. Maddy continued to eat and sleep just like she had for the past few years, though her weight loss was noticeable. She passed away overnight, without any fanfare, sitting by the heat vent underneath a window. Today we took her back to Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital to say goodbye for the last time.
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