Wednesday, February 4, 2009



Bye Bye Sweet Ranger...

Our sweet, terribly timid, cat died on Saturday morning!
On Friday morning, as I was waking the kids up for school, I noticed Ranger sleeping on the heater vent in Abigail's room. I thought nothing of it, as she tends to hide most of the day anyway.... Noon hour ... I put away laundry.. and again noticed her sleeping on the vent.. I thought nothing of it and continued on my way... Fast forward to 8pm, the girls are now home from training and Abigail says to me.. "Gee mom, you should see Ranger, she is sleeping on my vent and is so asleep that she didn't even open her eyes!"
Now, alarm bells would of gone off in a normal person, however, I never claimed to be normal..
I said to her, "That's funny, I saw her there earlier today, she must be cold"!
Now at 10:30pm I head off to bed... first I check in on the little ones, and as I'm walking by Abigail's room, I notice Ranger...still on the vent... in the same position as 7am.....
NOW alarm bells went off... (I know...I know... duh!!)
I pick her gently up, and she barely lets out a "mew" and falls into my arms. I think this was the first time I was ever able to hold her with her trying to jump down! (very skittish little cat), I laid her down on the my bed, in front of the fireplace, and RAN downstairs to Frank!!!
We ran back upstairs and her breathing was only once every 40 seconds or so...
I went and got the 2 older girls (they were up late watching TV) and let them talk to her, say goodbye etc.. and I made a call to a friend, who has had many cats, for some advice..
Anyway..Frank and Ranger made a late night trip to the Emerg $$Vet!! Where he found she was 4 degrees below normal body temp and she was dehydrated and now had a heart murmur! I just had her at the vet in October, and she was fine.
The vet put her in a warming bed, gave her fluids, but by 5am she had passed away.
I am thankful that she never suffered, she just went to sleep. I am also thankful that we were able to bring her to the vet, as it gave the girls time to "process" this. They were crying saying they wanted to stay awake with her until she passed.. unfortunately I was leaving at 7am for a funeral that was out of town, and I couldn't let the kids stay up all night.
So this way they were able to get some sleep and come to terms with loosing their first pet.
The vet called in the morning and told them she died nice and warm, all cozy under her blankets we sent with her.

We had been feeding this little black stray and I told Frank that after we returned from a visit to my parents, if she was still around we would take her in. Well, while we were gone, she gave birth to a litter of kittens under our elderly neighbor's house. A few weeks later, the mother was run over by a car, and all the kittens were left to fend for themselves. I was feeding them, but they were getting very wild!! Our neighbor was now threatening to kill them!! So I "staked out" the kittens, and with a very big net, and a very very big tummy, ( I was 8 months pregnant with Isabelle) and after a few days, I managed to get all the kittens. I found good homes for all of them, but kept one, Ranger!!
That was close to 10 years ago...

We'll miss her!!


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Krista and family

I just read your blog and learned about poor Ranger- it isn’t easy and the children especially the older two have always known Ranger to be there

I know that feeling and it came back to me to think about my cats- pets are family members and there is a definite bond- L

Sampsons said...

I'm sorry, Krista! I know how aweful and sad it is to lose a furry family member. Hugs to you all. N

geminirn said...

Oh guys we are so sorry,our hearts go out to each of you.

Hugs to each of you
love The Mahoney's

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the loss of your cat, hope the kids are doing ok - and you too of course!

Anonymous said...

Oh Krista. Give the girls a hug from Sage and from me. My heart goes out to you. We lost a pet, our Golden Retriever, three years ago. I'll never forget the feeling of driving Hunter to the vet, knowing only one of us was coming home.

Krista (K2)

Mammarazzi Madness said...

awhhhh .....so sorry to hear about your kitty.
Andrea

Just Us Girls said...

So sorry to hear about Ranger..it is never easy loosing a furry friend, they are like Family!

Hugs,
Carrie

Anonymous said...

Aaww... Guys, I'm so sorry. My friend's cat died and she was really sad too. Try going to a movie, and think of all the good times. We send our love from Quispam!