One of our three beautiful Muir cats, Lila, died today.
Lila was featured on this blog in its early days, in Tuesday Cat Nap posts back in 2005 and 2006. She was a gentle, loving long-haired cat. Lila lived a good long healthy life, making it to fifteen years old. She slept on my pillow every night, and kept me company through Joel's infancy, when Kathryn would often have to leave the room to be with him.
About a year ago, Lila was diagnosed with chronic renal failure, and we decided today that it was time to put her suffering to an end. Over the weekend, she was unable to sleep, or sit down, or use the litter box, and even the fluids and medicine we were giving her were no longer helping to alleviate her pain. It was a heart-wrenching decision to end her life, and I hope it was the right one.
I prepared Joel this morning for school, and told him he needed to say goodbye to her. Of all our three cats, Lila was the only one who let Joel pet her and would sit with him. Little boys are loud and move around a lot, and Joel's activity bothers the other two. But Lila always went to him for love, and was very gentle with him, and he with her. I know Joel will be very sad. But I also know this is a good life lesson too, about loss, and about taking care of our furry friends. We will have a little service for Lila this afternoon, and then bury her with her collar, her brush, a photograph, and a poem.
I know this is a movie/TV review blog, but I just felt today I wanted to share with you how beautiful Lila was.
Here are some Cat Nap pictures of Lila from the blog over the years. I think they show her gentle and sweet nature very well.
