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The Kitchen Table
chi83

My sweet Monkey has passed

11 years ago

I want to thank everyone for all of their prayers and well wishes these last few months through Monkey's journey. I have really appreciated all of the support through this difficult time.

Monkey fought so hard, but cancer can be relentless and in the end, his poor body just couldn't take it. He went downhill extremely quickly in the last 48 hours to the point where he couldn't eat or walk without falling over. It was a very easy decision that we had reached the end of his journey.

My kindhearted vet stopped by our house this evening to put him to sleep. He was laying on a favorite blanket in our backyard, which was his favorite place, and his passing was very gentle and peaceful. We are having him cremated and will keep the urn in our garden, which seems fitting given how much he loved the outdoors these last few months when we put him on a harness and walked him.

I am doing well, considering. There's a definite peace that I feel knowing he's finally out of pain. In hindsight I don't think I would have treated him knowing we would only get 3 months, but I had no way of knowing at the time. I hoped he would get a few more years. But I am glad we gave it our all to try to give him a better quality of life. I hope he knows how hard we tried.

I want to share a bit about Monkey's story. I adopted him in 2005, the same day my childhood kitty died. I went to the shelter in Florida and he immediately crawled into my lap. We had an instant connection, and I knew he would be my kitty.

Monkey is by far one of the friendliest, sweetest cats I've ever met. He's never met a stranger as anyone who encountered him became his new best friend, whether it was a family member or the cable man. Over the years, several people who claimed to dislike cats were won over by his charm. I always thought he would be a wonderful therapy cat if there were such things!

Monkey was such a loving cat. He would purr if you even looked at him. He loved boxes, kitty treats, toys, and mischief. He was always in a good mood, and craved affection. If he saw a hand that wasn't petting him, he would headbutt it until it started petting him. We used to have to hide our hands under the blankets or he would be relentless!

He was also well-traveled. He's lived in 3 different states, in 9 different homes. He's traveled across and stayed in hotels in 20 states. He always adapted well as home was anywhere we were together.

He was my heart, and he took a piece of it with him. I don't think I'll ever have another kitty like Monkey. He was so friendly, warm, loving and charming and I will miss him so much.

I hope he's still out there somewhere. It brings me comfort to think of him being with my mom, who passed in 2008, and my other kitty, Mouse, who passed last year. My husband had a dream last night, and there was a kitty in our house that he didn't recognize. Upon inspection, it had the body of Monkey and the face of Mouse, and I like to think it was Mouse telling us he's here to take care of Monkey. I'm curious to see if we get any "visits" in the next few days.

Anyway, thank you again. I wish this were a happier update but it's the price we pay for all the love and companionship. We've honored Monkey's life by adopting another kitty who needed a home. His passing means another life was saved, and there's comfort in that. He had so much love in him that I think he would appreciate that.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of my baby:





Featured Answer
  • 11 years ago

    Thank you everyone. I wanted to share another funny Monkey story:

    This happened when Monkey was a few years old. We were living with my mom, helping care for her while she had cancer. Monkey LOVED food, especially human food, and he had a funny habit where he would lay on his belly near you, and sloooooowly reach his paw out towards your food, thinking you wouldn't notice. Sometimes he was successful and would hit your food with his paw, which, to his mind, meant he claimed it and he should get to eat it. But in actuality, it just resulted in annoyed humans!

    One day I was in the living room and I hear my mom saying "Monkey, no" and then a few seconds later, "Monkey, I said no" and another "I see you, stop it" and then silence and then she burst out laughing. I went in to see what happened, and my mom was lounging on her bed, eating a burger that was sitting on a foil wrapping. Monkey was laying on her feet.

    She told me that Monkey had been laying there and slowly reaching out to try to touch the burger, and she had kept saying no. Finally, he got fed up, slowly reached his paw under the foil, grabbed the foil with his claws and tried dragging the entire burger down towards him. :)


    Comments (41)

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