Unlike some other posts I've posted on this blog, this one is rather serious.

In May of 2001, we were looking for a new cat after another was unfortunately killed by a car on a busy street down the street from our house. On the 12th, we adopted a mostly-dark cat covered in varying shades of brown and gray, with one orange spot on her forehead. We named her Sakura, Japanese for "cherry blossom". Oh, what a fitting name that was. Ever since she was a kitten, she was always on her best behavior; when she knew she did something wrong, she owed up to it, she never got in the way and when she knew she had to come indoors, she came indoors. She truly was a cherry blossom.

For the longest time, whenever we took her to the vet's, they commented on how healthy she was, even as she grew older. She was our first cat to live past 10 years old. Although, that being said, her health wasn't always perfect. After a bad fall in 2008, she developed arthritis in her hind legs. She could still walk and jump as normal, but she had a noticeable limp to her walk. She also suffered from asthma in 2011, but that wasn't enough to stop her from being a cat too. Everything, arthritis aside, seemed perfect, and her projected lifespan was 16 - 18 years.

But... last year, she started losing weight. We thought it was natural, because when humans get old they start losing weight. Then, it hit us that it wasn't. She was always sleeping, and she wasn't eating or drinking as she should; she didn't even want to be near her food. Concerned, we took her to the vet's. They weighed her, and found that she weighed only 5lbs instead of a healthier 9 - 10lbs. They also did some bloodwork on her, and we would receive the lab results the next day. We were hoping for the best, but at the same time, we feared the worst.

And indeed, the worst happened. She had kidney disease, which can be fatal for cats, especially as they age, and can never be recovered from. Further lab work on urine samples revealed she also had a urinary tract infection. Everything was going wrong at once. We were devastated.

The doctors recommended hospitalizing her for a few days so they could get some fluid into her, to try to get her kidney disease under control. We did that. When her treatment was over, she seemed more like the cat she always was. She would climb up onto our laps and sit there, purring gently. Everything seemed right in the world again... well, except that the kidney disease was still there, but under control. She even regained a pound. But... on Friday, her health began deteriorating again. She spent all day sleeping in the upstairs bathroom, which was rather unusual for her. On Saturday, it became even worse; she lost her sense of balance, and while she still attempted to get up, she kept falling over after a few steps. We dedicated ourselves to spending as much time with her as we possibly could, and keeping her as comfortable as possible. Her face looked like she had accepted her fate, but yet... there was a certain sadness in her expression. Like she was sad she'd never be able to have us scratch her behind her ears or gently stroke her back again.

At 11:30AM eastern time today, after one final reiki treatment from my mom (she liked reiki), she peacefully passed away. Since I was still asleep at the time, and my dad playing golf, she was surrounded by my mom and my sister. Our other cat, Kiba (born 2007), doesn't seem to be aware of her death yet, but I'm sure he'll notice after a few days. Since the ground is still frozen, we can't bury her, as we have done with our other deceased cats. Instead, we'll be taking her remains to the vet one last time tomorrow to be cremated.

They say that pets are part of the family too. Every bit of that is true. It was an amazing 14 years, Sakura. Rest well.

Circa March (adopted May 12) 2001 - February 21, 2016