A Great Loss…

On Friday we lost our beloved kitty, En Fuego.
He had not been eating and had lost a lot of weight. When I took him into the vet, she said he was dehydrated and his kidneys were shutting down. She said it could be any number of things causing it, including a parasite, sudden onset of diabetes or even cancer. They immediately started him on an IV with fluids to help with the dehydration. In order to have an idea of what was wrong and “possibly” fix him though, he would have had to undergo a lot of tests and procedures. Besides that being long and possibly painful, it was also very expensive (at least $1,000). Even then, we still might not know what caused his decline and more importantly, it may not work.
Colin and I made the very painful decision to let our kitty go. We were able to spend time holding, petting and talking to him. We let Z come in to say goodbye, because we knew he would always wonder what happened to his “Fuego” if we didn’t. He told the kitty he loved him and kissed him on the head.
We buried him in our backyard yesterday. Mercedes made a headstone from a river rock and it was perfect. My mom planted some beautiful orange flowers (that matched En Fuego perfectly) next to his grave. He will always be with us now, and we can visit him whenever we want.
The past few days have been very difficult. He hasn’t been there waiting by the door when we come home. He’s not there to get in bed with us at night or jump on my lap for love.
I can’t help thinking back to when he adopted us…
He would sit on our car when we went to my parent’s house. When we got ready to leave, I would pick him up to get him off the car and he always ‘hugged’ me. I kept threatening Colin I was going to bring him home and one particularly cold night, I made that decision.
Colin chose his name; “En Fuego” was a phrase used by a sportscaster on ESPN and since he was fiery orange (later we discovered, it also fit his personality too) it was a perfect fit.
He definitely had a unique personality and he fit in with us perfectly. :0) He was your typical cat in some ways; standoffish and aloof. But, he also loved to ‘play.’ His idea of playing though was to wrestle and often used his cat-like skills to his advantage. ;0) He also loved hiding and pouncing on unsuspecting ‘victims’ as they walked by (especially in the dark). This led him to have a reputation of being mean or scary, but that just wasn’t so. He was just very playful and full of energy. Another activity he enjoyed was playing fetch, usually with our socks or the cap to a water bottle. He also really enjoyed getting into our socks and leaving them in areas he knew we would find them. Usually it was my socks, and although I occasionally got annoyed, usually I found it amusing and sweet.
When Z came along, we were worried kitty wouldn’t take too well to a new person. But, to our surprise he became very protective of him. One day, just weeks after we brought Z home, we found the kitty standing guard over Z’s bassinet. We knew if Z needed us before he did, because En Fuego would come running in and start ‘talking’ to us. The two of them eventually developed a sibling-like relationship.

They would constantly vie for our attention and fought like any siblings. But in, not-so-rare, moments we would find Z stroking the kitty’s head or the kitty rubbing up against Z’s legs. In their short time together, they really came to love and respect each other.

Over the years, En Fuego didn’t pounce or wrestle as much, but he still had his fiery spirit. And he was always that loving ‘Kitty Shmitty’ we will remember.

We all miss him so much and will never forget the joy he brought to our lives these last seven years.