jasmine

Yesterday, we had to eutahnize jasmine, our sweet little tabby cat. She was 16 and had been in our lives for 14 years. Here is her story:

I had just recently separated from my soon to be ex-husband. I could not take our two dogs with me because I moved into an apartment. Just 2 months prior to me moving out, the cat we had for 8 years, started getting sick, he had crystals in his urinary tract. My ex-husband took him to the vet for a check up and called me when he got home to tell me that he had to put Cheebah to sleep, the doctor said he was not able to help him. I knew this was mostly BS and that he was just being mean, since he knew we were separating and I loved that cat, more than him!
So, i was very angry and devastated. The day I moved out, I was a mess, i had to say goodbye to my two dogs and I was not sure when I would get them. I planned to get them within a year, once I got a house. But it would be awhile before i saw them again. Being in an apartment by myself was difficult, I could only hear silence, and the creaking of the stairs outside my door. it was eerily quiet for me and so after 2 weeks I decided I would get a pet. Cats were allowed and I loved cats. So, I went to the humane society in auburn hills, looking for a cat. I had no idea what kind of cat I wanted, I just knew I would connect with someone. Well I walked into the Cat room and there she was, now, there were 20 cages with cats in them, all different ages, sizes and colors but I was drawn to her. She had the most incredibly green eyes I had ever seen. Her eyes seemed as if they were lit from behind and were a deep lime green. Just beautiful. I asked, what about this cat? Is she fixed? how old? Why is she here? I was told, she is fixed, she is 1 1/2 years old, the family surrendered her because their kids were harrassing her and they felt bad for her. her name was Tammy! lol. I was like oh, tammy, well thats doesn't fit her at all.
I asked to hold her, she came home with me that afternoon. I named her Jasmine after princess jasmine from the disney movie Aladdin, that princess has bright green eyes and it just seemed to fit her perfectly. I brought her to my apartment and she immediately jumped up on the couch and started purring, she never hid, she never acted nervous or uneasy. She was "at home". Those of you with cats know that this was very unusual, most cats slink around and investigate for a few hours at least, if not a few days and then hide under something until they know that things are ok. She just knew we were meant to be together. When Stephanie and I began seeing each other, she would walk around the apartment and cry for me, like she was looking for me, Steph would call her and pet her and tell her I was coming home soon. She did that for years. She would sometimes just be in the middle of the living room and if we were in the back part of the house, she would all of a sudden cry out, meow? meow? until I came in the room to tell her I was still here, then she would swipe up against my leg and walk away. She had been through many many pets, fosters and overnight stays. We had Zoey, harley, rocky, rudy, gracie, jupiter, venus, haley, emily and katie, shiloh, moosie, larry and of course the baby.
Everytime she would just look at me with this stare and scrunched up nose as if to say, I rather prefer the three of us, but I will tolerate them because I love you. She was a loving adorable kitty. She would walk up to Jupiter and rub all over her face and legs, asking Jupiter to pet her. Sometimes we would lift Jupiters paw and pet jasmine and jasmine loved that. They had a special bond. Last week. She was looking very sick, she had lost a bunch of weight and I was just wondering what is going on. Over the weekend, she got really bad and thin and stopped eating from what I can tell. By monday night she not walking anymore and was stationery on her cat bed. She had a few accidents upstairs and we think it was because she could not walk down the stairs anymore. By the time I got her to the vet on Tuesday morning, she was barely alive. Her breathing was very shallow, her eyes were stuck open, she was not blinking and her whiskers were not working anymore. They were not moving like antenna at the slightest touch. The doctor said, there is really nothing we can do for her. She is too far gone. We are not sure why. Most likely kidney failure or diabetes. but it is hard to say. So I made the decision to let her go.She weighed 7 lbs. I held her for a long time, and told her how much I loved her, what a great friend she had been, how lucky I was to have her and I thanked her for all of her love. I sang the song to her that we sang to her, "jaaazz man, take my blues away". She went quickly, as soon as they injected her with the pink serum that looks like dishwashing liquid. I had my hand on her heart and I felt it stop. Jasmine was my friend when I had nobody else, she just a loving spirit who was brought to me my someone and who made a huge difference in my life. I always knew when something was wrong. Like one time, we bought the automatic cat litter box, after 2 days she started peeing outside the box, a week later, she pooped right on the couch, there was no mistaking that she was not happy. I was like, hmm she trying to tell us something, I discovered that she was afraid of the automatic box. $150 litter box went into the trash the very next day!
I will miss her, I will miss her love and he striking green eyes. When I brought her home from the vet after she died, my son saw her in the blanket and began to babble in a sympathetic way, he had a sad face and was saying dye,dye Thats how he says goddbye. I think that sums it up. Dye Dye jazzie