Shock

For the past two weeks Josie Kitten has been avoiding me. I thought it was because of the new kitten … today when I arrived home after working night shift, I let the dogs out, and decided it’s time to hunt her down and give her some special attention. She’s always been a bit secretive and selective about the time she spends with me, but at no point was she reclusive until these past 2 weeks .. .

OMG. I found her hiding in a box in the basement … the basement smelled peculiar and I made a mental note to look around for any problems later … she came out of the box on her own, stretched, made a peculiar congested sound … but went up the basement stairs just ahead of me …. seemingly normal .. but when I put her food down for her, she wasn’t interested .. (not like her at all, as of yesterday she was at least eating) … then I noticed she was holding her mouth oddly .. partly opened … with her lips kind of swollen and pulled back … and as I pulled pried her poor little mouth opened, I realized the awful smell I had detected in the basement, was actually her mouth … and when I saw the inside of her mouth, a dreadful chill raised every hair on my body … her little tongue wasn’t little, it was black and malformed and hard as wood with a white rimmed hole in the center …. and the smell … oh what a terribly foul smell … but even then, she didn’t resist like she normally would by growling, she actually let me look … purring the whole time.

I carried her to the phone, called the vet and they saw her immediately … within less than 15 minutes I was signing to have her euthanized …. and within another 10 the deed was done.

She died in my arms … I stayed with her through the whole thing … talked to her and told her what a beautiful kitty she was, what a wonderful kitty she was, what a good kitty she was … and when no one was in the room I softly sang her … her very own Josie Kitten song.

She went very peacefully and wasn’t home from work even a hour and all this had happened. I’m quite emotional …

Oh dear Miss Josie Kitten, rest peacefully dear … I’ve loved you so.

And I’m feeling terribly guilty … how can it be I didn’t notice this was happening …. either a string became wrapped around the base of her tongue way in the back of her mouth, and the circulation was completely cut off … (her tongue was severly gangrenous) or … some type of cancerous process that I was completely, absolutely and totally unaware of has been going on for heaven only knows how long …

There was no point in doing a biopsy or examining her further post mortem for a solid answer since the outcome would have been the same either way … and he could tell that it wasn’t the contagious form of black tongue some cats get … just in case, I’m taking Jujubee in this afternoon, and Boo Kitty and Gypsie sometime later this week just to have them checked as well.