Such a difficult day yesterday!  Over the past few weeks, Chooey was on a downward spiral, not eating as much, rather lethargic and sleeping most of day.  The only time he showed any energy recently was when he thought there was an opportunity to go outside so he could sit with one of us in a lounge chair.

He’d sit patiently inside by the door, hoping to grab our attention by meowing or blocking the steps so we had no choice but to pick him up and take him outside. In his younger and healthier days, we’d take him out and he would explore and stalk whatever critters he could find but those days seemed long gone.  Lately all he wanted to do was to sit and sleep on one of our laps, basking in the warm Florida sunshine.

Chooey began having problems back in 2011 but thanks to the brilliant diagnostic efforts of Dr. Glazer at the NEAMC in West Bridgewater, MA, he had been stable and comfortable for most of the past two years.

By the end of this past week though he stopped sitting by the door, he stopped meowing to go outside, he stopped eating and drinking and he would cry and even hiss sometimes when we touched him – definitely very unlike his normally lovable personality.

We knew eventually the time would come and sadly yesterday it arrived – the time to make that very difficult decision.  We’ve been through this many times in the past but as any pet owner knows, your pet is a member of the family and the number of times that you do what needs to be done doesn’t make it any easier.  I guess selfishly we had both hoped that maybe some night he might just go to sleep and not wake up so we wouldn’t have to make that decision. But it was not meant to be.

Chooey died peacefully in my arms Saturday afternoon at a local animal hospital.

He had been with us since he was a little ball of fur when we got him at 10 weeks old – so after more than 17 years it just isn’t going to be the same.

Even though we still have Gizmo and Sparky, our home seemed so empty last night without him. No one was perched on his favorite pillow on the top of the couch. No one was sitting in my lap while I watched TV. And in the morning there was no one in the corner of the bed by the window.

But even though he is no longer with us physically, we are thankful to have so many memories of him.  Last night over supper, we were reminiscing….

How when he was younger he would jump up on the 2nd floor balcony railing at our Norton house which was only 1-1/2″ wide and majestically prance back and forth while surveying his domain below – since it was a 15 foot drop I would be frantic wondering each time if he would use up one of his nine lives.

The time he caught a frog in the yard and was walking around with it’s legs hanging out of his mouth.  Not too worry the frog did manage to escape.

How he liked to sneak up on the frogs hanging out on the edge of our Koi pond and make them leap with squeaks of terror back into the water.

The time when he was out in the yard with us and we watched him stalk a squirrel, then suddenly the squirrel stopped and turned around and screamed at him.  Chooey jumped 4 feet in the air, did a backflip and hightailed it in the opposite direction.  What a hoot!

How he would climb up into the high bush blueberry trees trying to get closer to the birds.

How he ferreted out the mice that had invaded our previous Fleetwood coach.

The times he and his brothers made the trip to Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and our rental property there.

How he enjoyed being on the boat, sitting out on the bow, taking in the breeze and watching the seagulls and the swallows swoop by.

So many memories.  Sweet Chooey, we will miss you! Farewell for now our fuzzy boy…