The Loss Of A Friend

This past Tuesday, we had to put our cat Kramer to sleep. He had been struggling with renal failure for a couple of months, and we had been doing all we could to help him - changing his food habits, giving him subcutaneous fluid injections among other things. It was not enough, however, and on Tuesday morning we came to the realization that he was going to start really suffering and we didn't want that to happen. So went to the vet that morning and had him put to sleep. I don't know if most people leave the room when it happens, but we didn't. I wanted him to feel comfortable and know that we were there. I pet him while it happened, and I was expecting his eyes to close and him to fall asleep before dying, but he kept his eyes open and died.

There are two kinds of people - those who see pets as just pets, and those who see pets as a part of their family. I am one of the latter, I've always felt that way, and I've always had a heart for animals. I think if I wasn't in ministry, I would probably be a veterinarian. Anyway, the loss of my friend has been really hard the last couple of days, and I thought that writing about him would help me overcome some of my sadness and help the grieving process. I found the following questions from a website that helps pet owners grieve the loss of their friends.

*** How did my pet come into my life?

Debby and I before we were married bought a dog that was supposed to be a rat terrier/beagle mix. I had bought a condo and so we took her over to the condo, where we found out over the next couple of days that Debby was allergic to her fur. Thankfully, we found a family from the church I was working at who were looking for a dog, and so it was a perfect fit. We also found out later on that this dog became a huge dog, which would have been interesting in a condo.

When we got back from our honeymoon, we decided to start looking for a pet, so we went to the Dumb Friends League in Denver to see the shelter dogs. We didn't really find any dogs we liked so we went to the cat area. I did not want a cat, personally - I had always considered myself a "dog person". I had one cat when I was little and he had run away, so I wasn't really interested in having a cat. But we went, and saw two different cats we liked. One was a Siamese looking miserable looking kitten; the other was a gray tabby cat. We saw the kitten first, and he made us laugh by falling into the trash can and running around the room. The second cat was kind of boring. There was another family who was interested in the kitten, but because we saw him first, we got first dibs, so we bought him. He was such a little guy who had been found in a dumpster with his brother. He had ear mites, so when we took him home, we had to clean out his ears for the first month or so. This "Siamese" cat actually turned out to be a Ragdoll cat. A ragdoll is a newer breed of cat that isn't as hard and sinewy as most cats are, they are mostly floppy and squishy. That was almost ten years ago, and Kramer lived with us and became our "first baby."

*** How did my pet get his or her name?

We were really stumped on what to name him. None of the names we had thought of fit. One day, however, we were watching Seinfeld, and Kramer had somehow got his way into the entertainment center where the T.V. was and was hanging out right underneath the T.V. He had a habit of running into a room and sliding in, kind of like the Kramer on Seinfeld came into Jerry's apartment. When the T.V. show came back on again and Kramer from the show did his thing, we knew we had our name. He has had other nicknames as well, but Kramer was his original name.

*** What was special about my pet?

Kramer really was more like a dog than a cat - he was playful, energetic, friendly, and very devoted to us. He was very easy to train, and actually liked to play fetch with little foam balls that we would throw to him. He liked to play with Q-Tips - we had to supply him with some after he started getting used ones out of the trash. He loved to hang over my shoulder and hang out while I was walking around the house and such. He became more and more of a lap cat as the years went by. He loved to watch "birdie friends" - in Dallas, we had these tall bushes that came up to our second story windows, and he would sit on a bed and watch the birds inside the bush and he would make this really funny chattering noise while he was watching them. When we would come home from being gone somewhere, he always met us at the door. When I was gone longer than he thought I was supposed to be, he would howl until I got home.


*** What special moments / life events did we share / endure together?

We moved a lot in his ten years of life - we are in our fifth house in ten years - and so he got to move around with us quite a bit. Each time we moved states (from Colorado to Texas, Texas to Arizona, and Arizona to Ohio) - he would ride in the U-Haul truck with Dad. This past move, which was the longest move, it was just he and I in the truck (with my friend driving the other U-Haul truck), and so we got to spend a lot of time over the three days of the move. He was good about it, never complained really, but I'm sure it was hard on him. He loved to explore the house. When Noelle was born, he was still part of the family - obviously he had to share time with a baby now, but he seemed to be okay with it. He still got plenty of time from his Dad. He would come up and listen to me playing my guitar, and one of his favorite spots to lay down was in my guitar case.


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It all ended too quickly, which I think is one of the reasons why it's so hard right now. It was hard to see his life begin to decline as he struggled with kidney problems, but he was good about it. I wish he could have lived another ten years, but I'm glad for the time I had with my buddy Kramer. I miss you, buddy.