#pootie

I started with my eldest, Patrick, who asked me outright what the vet said and I just very slowly and quietly told him the news was not good and that we have to say goodbye to our cat. Patrick just got very quiet and gave Pootie, who was at our feet, pets. After a while, I asked Patrick if he wanted to be there when we put Pootie to sleep and he just nodded. After a while Patrick just left and went off by himself in the house.

I told the youngest one, Lucas, next. That was more brutal than I expected. Up until this evening, I had thought that my youngest child thought Pootie to be a cute amusement. Pootie tolerated Lucas, in such a way that while the cat never ran away from him, Lucas’s pets tended to be awkward, but also quite quick. Lucas would see the cat, pet him while making loud noises, then leave Pootie alone. Lucas sometimes startled Pootie, but only enough to make the cat turn, not run. So when I told Lucas that we had to say goodbye to Pootie and he asked why, and I told Lucas that Pootie was very sick and hurt, and that we needed to send him to cat Heaven, I did not expect the wailing, and the heartbreak, and the bargaining of “Just five more years, please!” as if I had the power to make that choice. I was floored and I did not know how I kept it together. The eldest came into the room, drawn by the wailing, and he stood there for several seconds, figured out what was going on, and promptly left and locked himself in his room.

My middled child, Ian, heard the sounds of his brother’s distress and started demanding to know what was wrong. He wasn’t asking why Lucas was crying, he knew something was wrong, instinctively, and I had to tell him then, and he started crying and asking me why the cat had cancer, and pleading that I get the surgery, and…

Oh, boy. It was rough.

When Ian finally calmed down and ran off to get his friends on the computer to tell them, and probably get comfort from them, I managed to calm Lucas down. He asked me when we were going to say goodbye and I told him I had to speak to the vet.

He then proceeded to demand that I call the vet now, and I then realized that he had cycled back to thinking that something could be done about the Pootie’s condition.

After several more crying cycles, and when it finally dawned on him that we would bury Pootie in the backyard after he was Forever Asleep, he then demanded that we get a NEW cat, and that he had to look EXACTLY like Pootie, and that he would also be named Pootie. I am just devastated at this point, but I had to very calmly explain to Lucas that other cats may need a home, and that we can’t choose how they look. They will need new families and we can’t turn them away because they don’t look like Pootie.

This actually calmed Lucas down, and after several more minutes of much calmer crying he finally left my lap and said he was ok.

I checked on Ian and I asked him if he wanted to sit with us when we put Pootie to sleep. I also emphasized that he absolutely did not have to, only if he wanted to. He said he couldn’t do it.

hello @//petshopjc 👋🏽 Ofc it was another great night of spinning from @//andylvlac

& music from us and the artists we got to share the stage with ❤️‍🔥

@//__chrysalismusic__

@//pootie_____