Snowflake – In Memory

Snowflake sneaking a drink, 1997

Snowflake the Old Lady, 2008



It has to be at least a year since Snowflake (Woidat) took up residence in the dining room. In fact I think it’s over two, since I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been part of the feline family for as long as Parsley has been around. Until Saturday, when something strange happened.

We’d already committed to taking her to the vet. She was suffering, and wasn’t eating. On Thursday night I had managed to get her to eat a little Fancy Feast tuna – which probably wasn’t good for her, given the likely state of her kidneys, but it had to be better than not eating at all.

Perhaps because of a little new-found energy, perhaps with the extra attention, or perhaps just wanting to let us know how ill she was feeling, on Saturday she crawled out of the dining room into the hallway. I was on the phone to my mother at the time, and I’d already had a hard time telling her what was going on. When I saw that Woidat had come out to see us for the first time in years, I just lost it.

Whatever the reason for her coming out of her shell for the final day, we were pleased to be able to spend a little time with her. She curled up to sleep on a towel in the bathroom, and seemed reasonably content. Elliot came by and spent some time with her on Saturday – of course she’s been part of the family since he was eight. I only felt her shiver, Vicki says she purred for her.

The trip to the vet on Sunday was as painful as we expected. It’s hard to say that you don’t want them to run tests and maybe see if she can be treated, but all that would have bought would be some small relief for us. For the cat it would be more indignities and at the best, longer to suffer. So yesterday afternoon I laid her to rest in the yard, beside Pepper and Boober, her sometime nemeses.

I still find myself surprised that a cat who has always somewhat set herself apart, especially recently, has affected us all so deeply in her passing. But we were happy to give her a home for the last seventeen years, and I will never regret taking her in.

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