{"id":860,"date":"2008-10-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/10\/sad_things_come_in_threes.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:44:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:44:46","slug":"sad_things_come_in_threes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/10\/sad_things_come_in_threes.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Sad Things Come In Threes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last July, <a href=\"I wrote\">I wrote<\/a> about loosing my wife&#8217;s cat of 15.5 years.  It was hard, but the pain was tempered by the long time she was with us and the understanding that she was sick and hurting and her time had come.<br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/midnight_2004-1350.shtml\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/midnight_2004-1350.shtml','popup','width=400,height=533,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/midnight_2004-thumb-200x266-1350.jpg?resize=200%2C266\" width=\"200\" height=\"266\" alt=\"\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span>At the time I mentioned in passing that we had 4 cats.  What I didn&#8217;t write about was that a short time later, my oldest daughter&#8217;s cat, Midnight (at left), which was almost 5, was having a hard time finding the litter box.  While visibly healthy and happy (well, Midnight wasn&#8217;t ever particularly <em>happy<\/em>.  She was a bit like the Oscar the Grouch of cats), she was slowly destroying our carpets, throw rugs and whatever else got left on the floor.  We took her to the vet and tried some medication, but it became clear that this wasn&#8217;t working out.  We took her to the local shelter, hoping she might get adopted, but knowing that once we told them that her litter habits were sporadic, she may not make it.<br \/>\nIt was hard on Jessica because she had gotten her when she wasn&#8217;t yet weaned.  We bottle fed her for the first few weeks.  Jess loved Midnight, even though Midnight wasn&#8217;t overly affectionate.  Though she&#8217;s a very strong girl and understood why it had to happen, it was still hard.<br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/boo_n_twitch_2008-1331.shtml\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/boo_n_twitch_2008-1331.shtml','popup','width=400,height=300,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/boo_n_twitch_2008-thumb-200x150-1331.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" alt=\"\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/span>That meant we were down to 2 cats, Emily&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/archive\/001116.shtml\">Cookey<\/a> and the hitchhiker, Cally (remind me to tell that story some time).  Not too long later, however, we got two new kittens, one for Jess and one for Audrey who hadn&#8217;t ever had a pet of her own.  Two little black boys, Twitch and Boo.  Those two were a riot, chasing each other around and playing.  Even when they&#8217;d calm down, they&#8217;d be together, laying in a chair one&#8217;s arm over the other.  Twitch, on the right with the white belly and paws, was Jess&#8217; and all-black Boo belonged to Audrey.<br \/>\nWell, wouldn&#8217;t you know, on Monday we noticed Boo was throwing up and had slowed down considerably.  By this evening when Maria got home, he was quite lethargic.  Off to the vet he went.<br \/>\nThe prognosis was not good.  He was seriously dehydrated and had lost 0.6 of his 3.6 lbs.  He either had a virus or an obstruction.  IV fluids would be needed right away and a night in the hospital and a lot of money.<br \/>\nIt one of those decisions a Dad hates to make.  There&#8217;s just not money to do what needs to be done, yet it&#8217;s so hard to say no.  Mom was with him at the vet and she didn&#8217;t want to let go, but understood why we should.  In the end, after further talking with the vet, a recovery would be very expensive and was, frankly, a long shot.  That made the decision a lot easier, but still hard.  Sigh.<br \/>\nAudrey was home with me, finishing homework.  We hadn&#8217;t had supper yet, so I asked her to go to McD&#8217;s drive through with me.  It was a diversion, as the real mission was to go say goodbye to Boo.  In the car, I told her what was happening.  We had done all we could, but Boo wasn&#8217;t coming back home, but we wanted her to be able to say goodbye.  After a lot of tears, I carried my brave little girl into the vet&#8217;s and she held her kitty for the last time and said her goodbyes.  There were more tears as we left and more at bed time and probably more to come.  Even Twitch has been crying out, wondering where his brother and playmate has gone.<br \/>\nBoo only spent a couple of short months with us. There will be a new kitten, but for now we&#8217;ll just mourn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last July, I wrote about loosing my wife&#8217;s cat of 15.5 years. It was hard, but the pain was tempered by the long time she was with us and the<a href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/10\/sad_things_come_in_threes.shtml\" class=\"more-link\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sad Things Come In Threes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sad Things Come In Threes - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/10\/sad_things_come_in_threes.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sad Things Come In Threes - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last July, I wrote about loosing my wife&#8217;s cat of 15.5 years. 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In fact, the entire time we've been married, we've shared our bed with another. Pleiades, a petite, black domestic short hair came into Maria's life around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family and Friends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/images\/pleiades_close_salguod_net_image_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/09\/meet_cookie.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":1},"title":"Meet Cookie Cooky Cookey","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if I should be concerned about my mental health or encouraged because of my obvious manliness. After all, I've managed to attract 8 females to my lair. On the other hand, 4 of them are feline and 3 are my offspring. Meet Cookie Cooky Cookey (Silly Daddy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family and Friends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/images\/meetcookie_salguod_net_image_1.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/10\/two_cat_tales.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":2},"title":"Two Cat Tales","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"October 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading this post at the Hemmings Blog about 4 kittens hiding away in a 1984 Trans Am (above) they were bringing to a photo shoot reminded me of the two times I had something similar happen. The first was back in about 1995 and, ironically, was hiding in a Camaro\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Goofiness&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Goofiness","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/goofiness"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trans Am Kitties","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/trans_am_kitties-thumb-500x333-1467.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":669,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/05\/a_good_sunday.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":3},"title":"A Good Sunday","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Sunday, the Holy Spirit was at work. No, there was no fire from heaven or anything like that, it was just how the service came together on a theme of God teaching us through suffering. It wasn't planned, at least not by us anyway. You can listen to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family and Friends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/02\/happy_anniversa_1.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":4},"title":"Happy Anniversary","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is mine and my wife's 11th anniversary. We had plans tonight for a dinner out with no kids, but alas, Maria has a sinus infection and 2 of the three kids are sick. Oh well. It's hard to understand where 11 years have gone. It's been a wild journey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family and Friends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/08\/another_audrey.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":5},"title":"Taking the Wheels Off","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We just got back from a family camping trip this week. We went to Illinois for Maria's family reunion. We took the girls bikes so they could run around the campground and not drive us nuts at the campsite. :-) Audrey still rode with training wheels, but most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family and Friends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/images\/audrey_bike_salguod_net_image_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1420,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/1420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}