Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Max lost his purr. He’s been one lonesome kittyman since Icey’s been gone. Stuck to me like glue, and gained a pound to boot. He’s just not happy being an only child – something similar happened happened when Maddie died.

So we got Max a kitten. Meet Jasper.

He’s a red spotted tabby Oriental shorthair, 14 weeks old. As soon as I brought him into the house and opened the carrier, he and Max started purring at each other, then Max started grooming him.

Jasper brought an upper respiratory infection over with him, so the two of them are a bit under the weather at the moment, but they’re still pretty happy. As you can imagine, the kids are thrilled to pieces to have a kitten. He’s pretty cute. 🙂

Icey took a turn for the worse on Monday night, and by yesterday she was in bad shape. I made the difficult decision to put her to sleep. She laid in my arms and purred until she was gone.

I brought her home so we could bury her in the back with all the other kitties. Hub laid her on the floor and unwrapped the towel. The girls gave her a last pet. Kona nosed at her for a minute, like she was confused that her kitty buddy wasn’t getting up. Max was very skittish for a long time, but eventually he came over to see her, too. He sat next to her and groomed her, like a family member bathing their loved one in preparation for the grave. We put some pipe cleaner toys in the box with her, and the girls put in some cards they made saying how much they loved her.

We laid her to rest in the back yard. My daughter read Rainbow Bridge, because I couldn’t.

Farewell, sweet Icey, 2004-2009.