The macho cat
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He was paired up with Lulu for a while in Andy's apartment, then he moved in with Missy and Mandy, Hugh's already-ancient Siamese cats. He took it in stride as we adopted Rusty, Patch, Nisa and Bruno.
Tomás Gato Shirkey would take on anything. He was macho personified. If he wanted to go into the garage, he demanded it. If he wanted to be the only cat in the room, he would clear the room of other cats. Oddly, he didn't seem to mind having dogs around. Tomás was the most doglike of the cats, and he was the only cat who greeted visitors at the door with the dogs until we got him a protege (Patch). Despite his swagger, he liked being held; he's the only cat that wouldn't squirm when you held him in your arms on his back.
Tomás wakened us around 5 a.m. on the morning of July 13 with a cry of pain. He had lost the use of his back legs and was in great discomfort, and we called the emergency vet right away. She diagnosed Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy over the phone, and we bundled him up and rushed him to the UM Vet Hospital. The resident on call confirmed the diagnosis and told us that he had passed a blood clot from his heart to the point in his aorta that supplied blood to his back legs and was in a lot of pain. We were stunned; we hadn't known that we were going to lose him, but she said that the prognosis was extremely bad. Even though we didn't ask, it was clear what she would do if it were her cat. She brought him back to us in the "goodbye" room, awake but with pain meds on board, and we said our goodbyes to him as she administered euthanasia. She checked his heart, and pronounced, "he's gone".
| WANTED: CUDDLE CAT Job requires sleeping on Hugh's left arm. Applicants will please apply soon. |