Rest In Peace my sweet "Mommy Cat"

We were having dinner on Wednesday 5th, when we heard noises coming from outside and what appeared to be a cat fight. As sometimes there is a neighbourhood male cat that comes around and upsets my cats, I thought it would be him.

We rushed outside and heard a commotion from the other side of the fence, and my husband looked over the fence to see the neighbour shouting at his two dogs to get away. Trapped in the corner was our eldest cat "Mommy". He picked her up without a struggle and handed her over the fence to my husband.

He brought her home and lay her down on the kitchen rug. She was panting heavily with her tongue hanging outside. We thought she was just in shock and let her rest for 10 minutes while we patted her to calm her down. She then got up and walked a few metres limping from one of her back legs. She was still panting heavily and we thought it better to take her to the Emergency vet at Murdoch University, where they have the best vet school in Australia.

They are about 15min from our house, and Mommy miowed frequently during the car trip. I presumed she must have been in pain.

On arrival we told the receptionist what had happened and she took Mommy from my arms, and said she would be given oxygen and an injection to calm her down as she was in shock, and the vet would give us a diagnosis within 15 minutes.

We waited in the waiting room and were later called in by the vet.

She explained the situation by saying that Mommy had two ribs broken in two places and most probably a pierced lung judging from a quick preliminary examination and she would require an operation and long term care. 
In her opinion the chances of her recovering and being healthy again were only 50% and the cost of the operation and 24 hour care for a few days would be around 5000 to 6000 dollars.

She left my husband and I to discuss the situation and said she was going to further examine the cat.

She came back 10 minutes later and said, that if we wanted to go ahead we were in the best animal hospital and they had the best doctors and resources, but the cat was worse than she had at first feared. She had been attacked by two bull-terriers and they are quite vicious and strong when they bite, and she had a lot of internal injuries. She was only about 7 years old, she could heal, but she could also have life time health problems.

We had already decided we couldn't go ahead with the operation, the cost was too much.

We were ushered to the state of the art operating room where other "patients" were being treated and were able to say goodbye to our lovely cat. She was comfortable and without pain, the vet said, as painkillers had been administered, she had her little tongue hanging out, laying there calmly with an IV into her paw.

The vet asked if we wanted to be present when they gave her the injection, but I didn't have to courage to be there, sorry Mommy, I wanted to remember you alive. So the vet said that she could administer a "feel good" anaesthetic and when she fell asleep we could then go.

She fell asleep soon with her eyes still open, and I left crying my eyes out.

I will always remember her sweet nature, her cheekiness, her constant miaws when she wanted to be fed, her motherliness towards her daughter Twiggy (in photos below) and most of all I will remember a summer day when she appeared in our back garden with a raw steak which she must have stolen from the neighbour's barbecue, as they had left it unattended. She always made us laugh!

She was pretty, clever and knew what she wanted. On weekends if I wanted to sleep in, and she wanted to be fed, when she had enough of waiting, she would jump on the chest of drawers, and slowly push things around making sure she was making a noise, or she would throw small things on to the floor, like coins, rattle my necklaces, etc, so that I would eventually get annoyed and get up. Then she would jump off and run to the kitchen. 

She loved being tickled on her belly, and most days when I arrived from work and parked the car in the driveway, she would lie with her belly up in the driveway and wait for me to tickle her belly. Then she would give a little run and lie down again and miaw and I would follow her and tickle her again, and she would run off again and do the same, until I gave up and came inside the house. Then she would also run inside with me.
My husband used to call her "Velhota" which in Portuguese means "old lady" as she was the oldest of the 5, and she was his favourite too as she was very social.

I'm sure the rest of your cat family will miss you too.
The morning after she was gone, the other 4 were smelling the kitchen floor where she had lain after being injured, and then would look at me, as if to say "Where is she?"
RIP my lovely cat.

Twiggy (Mommy's daughter will miss her the most, they were always together)

My thanks to the vets and staff at Murdoch 24h Veterinary Hospital, they were very caring and understanding.