Remembering Sweety Pie

 

2009

It’s always so hard to lose a furry family member.  This August we said goodbye to our sweet 17 year old girl “Sweety Pie” aka “Sweety”.  She joined our family in the fall of 2005 when we were living outside of Brandon, Manitoba.  We had just unexpectedly said goodbye to our sweet boy “L’il Dude” who left us at way too early an age due to a degenerative illness.

Our special rescue L’il Dude 
Just before he passed unexpectedly in 2005

Mourning his loss we did what we always do, we sought out to fill the huge gap he left in our hearts.  Off to the local SPCA we went.  While there we fell in love with some newly born grey and white kittens.  Before adopting right away we decided to sleep on it to make sure we were really ready.  The next morning I went off to work and Dan headed to the SPCA.  I had asked him to “get the one with the pink nose”.  There was one kitten who stood out and he had the cuttest bubble gum pink nose.  When I got home from work we had our pink nosed little guy who we named Monkey Face, and because he didn’t want to separate them, we also welcomed his little sister who we named Sweety Pie.  

Sweety and her brother Monkey, doing what she did best, hugging 💞

This wasn’t the first time we didn’t want to split up brother and sister, when we first moved to Brandon we adopted two lab crosses who were brother and sister who we named Bart and Maggie.  After all, we are “The Simpsons”, lol.  I still remember Dan saying “We can’t split them up they’re brother and sister!” ❤️ 

But I digress, back to Sweety.  The name suited her to a T.  She was genuinely the sweetest cat right from the day she joined us.  She could always be found cuddling and cleaning her brothers or snuggling with me.  Not long after we welcomed Sweety and Monkey, we also welcomed Tweety.  He was a stray cat found in the parking lot at my work.  We brought him in and as there was no room at the SPCA we agreed to foster him over the weekend.  Of course he fit right in, so when the call came from the SPCA on Monday morning we happily told them he’d be staying with us.  Let’s just say the manager of the SPCA wasn’t too surprised by this news.  She had come to know us over the years  and was more than happy to know Tweety now had a wonderful home.  So three kittens to replace our L’il Dude…that’s about right 💜.

Sweety, Tweety and Monkey
Their first weekend together - like peas in a pod
2005

Our beautiful Sweety outlived her two brothers who both passed away earlier than we thought they would in late 2019.  Thankfully, she still had her younger brother Lou for companionship when they passed.  And, in early 2020 we welcomed her bengal brothers HeyZeus and HoseHey.  Even with the house full of cats again, it was never quite the same for her after Tweety and Monkey passed.  She didn’t have the same crazy energy her younger brothers had 😊. 

Instead, she became even more attached to me, I was her person 💕 

January 2020

In the fall of 2021 we set off for our RV adventure through the US and into Mexico.  Sweety had been showing signs of her age, nearing 17 and we honestly didn’t know how far in the journey she’t make it.  Neither of us actually thought she’d make it all the way to Mexico.  She surprised us both, making the journey without any difficulty.  She slept a lot on the drive, but also took time to get up and check out the view.

Checking out the scenery on our drive through the US headed to Mexico

Her favourite place, cuddled up in my lap ❤️ 

Not only did she make it all the way to Mexico, once there she was determined to walk on the beach and feel the warm sunshine on her old bones. She spent most of the day curled up in her favourite spot in the RV, every now and then venturing outside to explore.  And without fail, every night as soon as we turned the lights out she’d climb up on the bed and curl up right beside my head where she’d purr, pummel me and then eventually settle in to sleep for the entire night.  

Feeling her paws in the sand and the sun on her in Lo de Marcos 💕 

Enjoying sunshine on the beach

Her brother HeyZeus loved to cuddle with her.  He couldn’t resist when he’d hear her purring.  It was nice to see her have her brother cuddle with her (aka climb on top of her) even if sometimes she wasn’t up for it. 

Sweety and HeyZeus

She would tolerate HeyZeus, but she and HoseHey never did see eye to eye.  Miraculously though, on the way home HoseHey even curled up somewhat close to her.  For Sweety, these young boys just couldn’t replace her brothers Monkey and Tweety.

HoseHey and Sweety getting close on our RV drive home

Sweety spent her final summer at home here in Nanaimo.  Whenever the sun was out we would let her out on the deck where she’d sleep for most of the day.   She was in indoor cat, but loved being outside on the deck or in the yard. Occasionally she’d surprise us by venturing off the deck down onto the grass and out into the yard.  She seemed almost suddenly to get so very thin and frail, yet it wasn’t sudden and had happened gradually over the last couple years. I remembered the miracle that CBD oil is and how it helped our old guy Hank during his final days so I got some for Sweety as well to help ease her stiff joints and keep her comfortable.

In early August, with her health starting to take a turn for the worse she became more confused and started to lose her sight.  We noticed when she started walking into walls, poor girl.  We also had some fun times trying to figure out where a urine smell was coming from in our downstairs laundry room.  Turned out she wasn’t finding the litter box and was peeing in one of the upstairs registers which was then running down the vent over the laundry room.  Poor old girl.  We helped her by moving her litter box closer to where she was on the main floor, closing the doors to the rooms and vents she was gravitating to and putting dog training pads on the vents just incase she made it into the room.  Which did happen a fair amount since her brothers don’t like closed doors and know how to open them!

I’ll remember her for her sweet nature.  She was a genuinely sweet being, a wonderful cuddler and the loudest, strongest loving purr . It’s never easy making the decision for when it’s time to help them move on.  But once she lost her sight and her old frail bones were causing her trouble getting around, we knew it was time to make that horribly difficult call.  

I’m grateful for the compassion at our local veterinary clinic where they had a special room set aside at an entirely different part of the clinic reserved just for these difficult appointments.  Sweety is now at peace, out of any pain after living a very full life and giving us and her brothers many years of love.  

Rest in peace sweet girl
Thank you for all the love you gave us 💞
August 18, 2022