Roxanne

We lost our old cat today. Roxanne was about 16 years old, maybe older. She came to live with us when my #2 daughter moved back home not too long before she was married. Roxanne's early years weren't very good. As long as dd (short for dear daughter) was there, she got good care, but there was a brief period of time when dd moved home and when she discovered Roxanne wasn't getting fed by ex-roommate. Dd brought a skinny, emaciated Roxanne, along with 4 kittens, home to live with us. To make a long story short, we did eventually fatten her up some, but she was always on the small side.

Roxanne was a huntress. She had to be for those weeks when she was taking care of kittens and not being fed regularly. She caught birds, mice, and even a snake once. She usually left them on the patio step for our approval. Nothing like opening the patio door drapes to find a dead critter laying on the step. And just a couple of short years ago she was still hunting and being successful at it. We found several rats laid out on the patio too, which wasn't a pleasant sight by any means.

Roxanne was also very nimble. When we had our funky decorative fencing in the front of the house by the walkway, she would jump up on the post and then jump onto the roof. One of her favorite roosting places was on the roof over the garage, under an eave. She was shot by a bb-gun once, probably while sitting on the roof. When she wanted down she usually jumped back down onto the fence post, or sometimes our van if it was parked close enough to the roof overhang. She also jumped from our patio roof straight onto the ground quite often. We'd see her poke her head over the edge of the patio roof, look at the ground a bit, then she'd jump down with a "thunk."

Once, when our 2nd oldest granddaughter was about 4 years old, one of our sons-in-law heard about a photo contest for milk. It was for those magazine ads that usually showed a celebrity with a milk mustache and the words "Milk: It does a body good." I don't remember what the prize was, but he thought of Roxanne when he heard about the contest. You see, Roxanne was black & white, and one of her features was a white mustache. Dsil thought she'd be a good candidate for this contest, and he thought of our blonde, curly-headed granddaughter as an accompanying photo object. Who could resist a cute little curly-headed blonde girl and a sweet-looking black cat with a milk mustache. He never did enter the contest but somewhere in our archives we probably still have the pictures he took of granddaughter and cat and their milk mustaches.

About ten days ago we noticed Roxanne wasn't eating. She has been known to be picky from time to time, but not much we offered enticed her to eat. She ate a little cooked chicken, but even buying Fancy Feast cat food didn't do anything for her. So off to the vet she went. $276, some senior cat food and two weeks worth of antibiotics later, she was gone. She seemed to be picking up strength. She still didn't eat hardly anything, but she was going outside and walking around, and more importantly--fighting us off when we gave her the syringe full of milky white medicine two times a day. We fully expected her to recover--she still had almost a week's worth of antibiotics to take. Sadly, it wasn't to be. DH found her in her bed, no longer with us in body. We buried her in the back yard next to our pink rose bush.

She will be missed. She was a big part of our family for many, many years. And every time we lose a pet, I visit the Rainbow Bridge site online, which brings comfort at times like this. Here's the URL:
http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm

It never fails to bring tears to my eyes every time I read this poem. My brother sent me this URL years ago when they lost their cat Tsunami. I read it every time we lose a pet, and every time he loses one, too.

Goodbye, Roxanne! How we'll miss you!