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SUKIE AND RAD by Rose (US)
In 1995 we got a small male Pomeranian dog, and he came home to a house full of cats. I called him Rad. At that time I had 5 adult cats. One female Tuxedo totally smacked him good, but he forgave her, and assumed he was one of the gang. So he was a dog who probably thought he was a cat. One would have thought that run-in would have tarnished his love of cats, but nope he just took it in his stride. In 1997 a lady took in a mother cat that was due to give birth imminently. She was thin and tired and it was very hard to know if she could deliver all the kittens and they would live. The woman had a black lab female that had just finished nursing her own puppies and they had been adopted. Momma cat had a tough time and afterwards could not feed nor care for all of her kittens. Half of them ended up going to the Lab to be fed and cared for. I had just lost my tuxedo Suzie Que a few months before to cancer. She had been the one who smacked down the Pom on sight. I first saw the kittens at about 10 days old, and right off the lil tiny tuxedo stole my heart. I asked for her and was granted permission to take her when she finished nursing. I saw her every few days and was allowed by Step Mom Lab to hold her under, her supervision, of course. By ten weeks she was finally big enough and eating enough on own to leave her surrogate mom. I had 5 adult cats here and the Pom by then. I brought this lil ball of black fluff in and named her Sukie and she took off right up to the dog who was in his exercise pen, and stuck her face in his and said ‘HI’ and kept wiggling as he licked her ears and fell in love. This was a case of love at first sight for both. Any time she was loose she would go to his pen. I did not allow her in it or him loose as she was too tiny to risk him being overly playful. For years they grew more and more connected. She would sleep lying against him and he would not move away until she wanted to get up. He shoved toys to her and she batted them back. He got on with all the cats, but this was his true love and she spent more time with him than the other cats.
Last month she got ill fast. It came down to lung disease and then a respiratory infection moved in, then pneumonia. Until her last day she would take herself to this area where he had slept with her. Even as sick as she was she managed to get to this area, and lie down as if in wait. On Monday, November 28, 20011 she passed away a 7am not feet from his area. The lil tuxedo Sukie, and the lil Pom, Rad, have been re-united as they were in life. I do believe they have both crossed that bridge and are happy, healthy and young and enjoying this great love affair they had while here with me. May they play and have each other for eternity.
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I
have had many cats over many years in my 65 years on earth. My first ever was a
lil tiger cat in my aunt's barn that she let me bring in; I named him/her
Harvey. This was the start of my life long love of all things furry that purred
and barked and squeaked. Harvey did not hang about long as on farms once they
got big they were ushered back out to the barn, usually on their own to mouse
and hang with the other cats out there. This set me on my path to being an
animal lover forever.
In
2008 he got ill, diagnosed with COPD. He had to go on meds 4 times a day and had
to have limited excitement and slowed down a lot. She appeared to understand he
needed to sleep more and she would go and watch over him. He did pretty well on
his meds until the fall of 2009, when he went down fast. He passed in his sleep.
For days and weeks and months she went to his area and sat, slept and waited.
Not once since he passed did she stop looking and hoping. 