R.I.P. Trauma the cat

My wonderful cat of almost 18 years had to be put to sleep yesterday. He had kidney failure and there was nothing we could do for him. He had been treated for thyroid disease for a while and the consequence of that was that it exacerbated his kidney issues that he had. If we had decided to treat his kidneys it would have made his thyroid even worse. It was a no win situation. In addition, the doctors thought he had spinal cancer as his back left leg became paralyzed and then his tail stopped moving a month ago. Basically he was at his end and he was very old...by cat standards.

I'm very sad that he is gone. I adopted him my Junior Year of college as a kitten. His birthday was 1 day after mine. On July 3rd he would have been 18. He had a great life. He was spoiled rotten and the most docile and loving cat I have ever met.

He would purr if you rubbed his belly and actually liked having his claws clipped. He would reach out and try to hold "hands" and like having his paws touched. He loved to chase and kill voles and chipmunks and would bring them as toys into the house to play with. Sometimes dead sometimes not...which always made for some excitement.

Trauma lived in North Carolina, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC and Virginia; He flew on a plane twice and lived with 3 dogs..of which he outlived 2. He had a pudgy floppy belly that would waddle from side to side as he trotted into the kitchen to get turkey or chicken. He liked to wake up my husband at all hours of the night to be pet, but knew better than to ever wake me...basically b/c he couldn't. He loved to lie on my side of the bed and put up a fuss when I tired to move him...hence his name. Trauma. He whined about everything. His meow sounded like a complaint, everything was about him (as it is with all cats) and you lived to serve him. His purr was loud, his meows even louder.

He was a great kitty, there will never be another one like him. I'll miss him very much. I love you Trauma kitty!