This past Monday, 06/24, Peaches, our beloved, crazy, funny, 2.5-legged cat passed away. For 14 years he was a member of our family and we miss him so much. We noticed him slowing down considerably over the last month, and then his back leg amputation stump became infected and he had gotten too old for his body to fight it. This is a cat who definitely used every single one of his nine lives.
We used Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice service, and I can't recommend Dr. Melanie Cohen highly enough. She came here to our house and put Peaches to sleep while I petted him. That was such a hard decision to make, but poor Peaches just wasn't up for the fight anymore, and he was hurting. We wanted him to pass away in his favorite place which was out on the porch, and with us all around him.
Dr. Cohen was so wonderful. She got right down on the floor with him and spent quite a bit of time with him as she explained to us exactly what she would do. I loved that she didn't just put him to sleep right away. Knowing that he was hurting, she first gave him pain medicine that lifted his pain. He relaxed and started purring again while he was being petted. We had our old Peaches back for a few minutes, and we were glad he wasn't hurting anymore. He fell asleep purring because he could finally relax, and then she put him to sleep.
The whole process was so incredibly difficult for all of us, but Dr. Cohen was so wonderful throughout it all. She gave us a few minutes with him afterwards and then helped us wrap him up, in his favorite sleeping position, in his favorite blanket for burial. She even took a paw print impression in clay and gave it to us!
Peaches definitely made our lives interesting. He was no ordinary cat. He never seemed to realize, or care, that he only had 2.5 legs and lived pretty much like any other 4-legged cat. He loved strange sleeping places, like inside Andy's bass drum.
He loved the snow. He would roll around in it in the yard. He would lay on the porch and snow would drift in on him through the screens and he could keep sleeping through it, snow-covered. He is the only cat that I know who actually enjoyed being pushed in a toboggan down the driveway!
He loved bags and had a particular favorite which was a Christmas gift bag. He loved to lay on paper or anything crinkly. One day I was reading a gardening catalog on the living room floor and he came over and plopped himself right on top of it, and then that catalog and the gift bag became his favorite place. He would spend some time sleeping in the bag, then come out and spend some time sleeping on the gardening catalog, or some days just decide to do both at the same time!
He was definitely a unique cat, and we will miss him so much. We believe that he's now running around harassing our first cat, Busa, like he used to, and chasing squirrels.
Go get 'em, Peaches.
