Jenny

Jenny died today.

Jenny was my parents' 19 year-old cat. She was born in January of 1987, during my sophomore year of high school. We got her in March of that year.

We had just lost another cat to feline leukemia, and were thinking about a replacement. Having just gotten my driver's license, I was looking for a reason to drive, so I went to a pet store in a nearby shopping center to look to see if they had any kittens. They did, so I went home and convinced my parents to get her. They agreed, and she came home that night. Jenny settled into our home quite easily, and was adopted by our longhaired fifteen-pound tomcat, JJ.

When she was about 18 months old, she was struck by a car. I ended up finding her in the rafters of the garage with the left side of her face smashed up. We rushed her to the vet, and she made a full recovery, except that she lost her left eye and a couple of teeth. Other than that, she lived a very healthy life until a couple of weeks ago. She went in to get a cyst removed and some bad teeth pulled and she apparently never recovered from the anesthesia.

Her organs started to fail last week. After a couple of trips to the vet for fluids and medicine, and a visit by me last Friday, she perked up somewhat. But this morning she couldn't walk and had to be put to sleep.

I'll miss her, but I take comfort in knowing that she had a good life.