In Loving Memory of Bogie
Bogie came to me in 2002, as an unmanaged diabetic who was urinating all over the house. I decided to take him in simply to see if I could correct a litter-box issue (not knowing that his diabetes was unmanaged). After a week with me, he was having no litter box issues, and seemed in better health, so I kept him. Over a 2 year period, we had our struggles. We learned that Bogie had developed cardiomyopathy (a heart condition) and toward the end, was going into kidney failure. Treatment for one disease made another one worse, so it was always a balancing act. Through all the blood testing, fluid-giving, insulin needles, vet visits, and the TONS of supplements and vitamins I tried with him, Bogie was always the most patient, trusting, co-operative boy I knew. He was almost always at the door to greet me when I came home. He would just sit there, and look at me, patient while my other cats were rubbing against my legs.
Back when he was feeling a little better, he would "bark" at me. He had this very loud, very definitive "MROW!" that he would belt out. I loved it. He usually liked to stay in the kitchen, sleeping on the cool floor - but occasionally, I would wake up in the morning, with this giant head, and two huge eyes, staring at me. Or he would make his way from the kitchen to the bedroom, and sit on the floor, stare up at me with that big face, and I would help him up onto the chair to sit with me. He would sit, let me pet him, purr REALLY loudly... but after about 10 minutes, would decide he'd had enough, and out of nowhere, just get up and jump down. He was such a good boy, always. Sometimes I would come home and find one of my other cats sleeping on the bed or the ottoman with Bogie. I loved seeing this, since Bogie mostly just slept on the kitchen floor.
I am glad that Bogie is now at peace, because I felt like the last few days, he was really starting to suffer. But I miss him, and wish that I could have given more to him during the time that he was here.
On Sunday, August 8th, Bogie spent all day sitting at the window, in the sunlight. I think he knew it was almost time. The picture above is from that day. I tried to spend a lot of time with him, since I think I knew he was getting ready, too.
Bogie passed away on Monday, August 9th, 2004, around 11:30 pm. I love you, Bogie.