9 Lives

My father died an odd death back in 2001. It was unexpected. He was not married and was not close to anyone. My mother (divorced from him for 20 years), my step mom (divorced from him for 10 years) and I (had not spoken in a few years) all went down to clean out the apartment and take care of things. I am an only child, so the mess was mine. Over the long weekend we drank several pitchers of margaritas and laughed. He left his life insurance to a friend. She was nice enough to give it to me anyways. With that I bought my first home by myself.
My step mom and father had a cat. They got Brandy when I was 8 years old. When they split my father kept the cat. When my father died I took Brandy back to Atlanta with me. I had two other geriatric cats at the time that were confused and scared of the new addition. My uncle (brother of my father and had not spoken to my father in decades) took Brandy. Mom took her up to his house. This year my uncle lost his house. Brandy stayed in his room at my grandmother's house for a few days. My uncle and grandmother delivered Brandy here a week and a half ago. As you can see this cat has been with just about everyone in the family at some point, including my aunt and uncle in Savannah.
She is about 19 years old, so first things first I took her to the vet. She was very skinny and full of hair mats. The vet took one look and knew the problem. I was thinking she would recommend to put her down. Brandy had a hyperthyroid issue, but otherwise is in good health. $265 later it was time to set up for surgery to fix the problem. The surgery went fine and while she was under they shaved her down to get the mats out. I now have 1.5 naked cats. The surgery was over $700. I could not feel good about myself to put a cat down that still has quality of life just because it is cheaper. I am not saying money is no object, but I just could not sleep. I am kind of weird about making that call, when my father died I was the one that made the call to pull the plug since I was the only family member. Rather full circle, huh? So I have a cat that will put on some weight and be a good kitty.