Goodbye Mr. Paw Paws

Sadly, one of our cats passed away yesterday. Mr. Paw Paws was a special cat, born in a normal liter of four, he was the only one who was a little "off". As he grew, we knew he wouldn't get much bigger and we named him Mr. Paw Paws, after the cartoon I used to watch as a kid (Paw Paw Bears). It seemed only fitting, since they were the world's smallest bears, and he was going to be a small cat. He ended up with a normal sized body, but his legs were short and stubby, and he had a short neck. We joked and called him our dwarf kitty. His hair was also really thick and sort of curly, and would mat up really badly. He got lots of tangles, that even the vet had a hard time getting rid of. He didn't like jumping onto things (probably because of his short legs) and he would kinda stumble when he walked, it was really stiff legged. We knew he had problems, but he was still our little Paw Paws.

A couple of years ago, he got a really bad abscess on his throat, and we had to rush him to the vet's at around 8:00 pm, on New Year's Eve. We sat there for almost 3 hours waiting for them to drain it and Neuter him at that same time. It healed, and then a month later, came back. After no less than 5 trips to the vets over an 8 month time period for that abscess, it finally went away. We should have known something wasn't right with him because during his third operation, his breathing started to decline and they had to stop the surgery because they were afraid of losing him on the table. After that, we just had them drain it while he was awake.

He became an indoor cat, occupying our spare bedroom (because he'd try to fight our house cat Binx - he was a little instigator). For some reason, I decided to put him outside in May, because of my surgery coming up. He did wonderfully and he loved being out with the other cats. But then one day in July, he started wobbling when he walked. I brought him back inside thinking he was dehydrated, and he was inside for 3-4 weeks, which during this time, he was fine, but still had the wobble. I noticed that he didn't get up as much when I came into the room, until I called him, but didn't think much of it. So about 2 weeks ago, I put him back outside. Two days ago, my mom said that something was wrong with him because he wasn't following her all around. I went out and checked him, and he seemed alert, just itchy in his ears. So I put some ear mite solution in them and hoped he'd become more himself. I should have taken him back into the house!

Yesterday evening, my mom came outside and told Mark and I that she didn't see him. So we went looking for him. Sadly, we found him curled up underneath an old dollhouse. It looked like he went to sleep and just never woke up. I could tell that he had been dead for a couple of hours already. :( So this morning, I had to take him to the vet, to have him cremated, where he will always be with us. I guess I should have never put him back outside, but he seemed to enjoy being out of that spare bedroom so much, it didn't seem fair to keep him in it. He was such a good little cat and he will be deeply missed.

Our little Paw Paws (seven years old)....