The Walker Blog

Where to start?? Right after Mindy Jo passed, Cathy had the opportunity to help a friend of one of the MOMS Club members. The family had a cat named Hobo and they had to relocate for health purposes. They asked if anyone could take Hobo for a few months until they were able to bring him to their new place. Cathy asked Steve about it and he said sure. We had Hobo with us for just over a week when Hobo's mom called to say that they'd be able to take him sooner than they had hoped! Just when Toebe was getting to love Hobo, it was time for him to go. This left Toebe very sad and he walked around the house crying and looking for Hobo.

Our neighbor Wendy wanted to adopt a puppy from the Wake County SPCA and had told Cathy about it. Cathy went online to the SPCA's website and saw that they had an October special... $20 cat adoptions! So on Wednesday, October 27th we went to the SPCA to see the kitties and fell in love with two. One was named Quincy and the other was Perry Como. We decided to adopt them both, and we renamed them.



Cathy's parents are coming today for a week long visit and then Steve's dad and Sue Ann are coming next Wednesday through Saturday for the holiday. We're very excited to spend time with them and for them to spend time with Gus!!

We'll post again soon! In the meantime, be sure to check Gus's blog every Tuesday for updates and pictures!!!
:)
The Walkers

Well, we went to an official pig-pickin' this weekend. A guy that Steve works with had his 40th birthday party Saturday night up in Wake Forest and he had a pig. It was really tasty!! A little gross to look at, but it was very delicious to eat.

We sat outside tonight for a little and enjoyed the luxury of a screened porch. It was 85ish but not too uncomfortable. We had fun watching Toebe bark at birds and try to get bugs outside the porch. We also watched Finding Nemo tonight. We forgot what a great movie that is!!! "Just keep swimming... just keep swimming..."

We're excited because Toebe has discovered his voice and purr! He hasn't been vocal at all since we've had him and just recently he's started to meow. It doesn't help that we've left him on the porch overnight and he's meowed so loud that it wakes us up. He's never purred before either. Just not a cuddler or lover, but today Cathy heard his purr! She was so excited to tell Steve when he got home from work and then he was able to hear it too!

I guess that's what we have to talk about--lol. No kids to talk about their great accompishments. We have cats to talk about. Sad isn't it? It's not like we're not trying to get pregnant... we are. Just taking a little longer than we had hoped. We're still young though (right?) and have time on our sides still. Until we have kids to talk about... we'll continue to bore you with details about our fur kids. LOL.

Ned is going to the groomer tomorrow. He is SO hairy! He is in desperate need of a shave! He'll be a new pup tomorrow!!

Later--
The Walkers

The last time we wrote it was Labor Day weekend. That was two weekends ago...

The Sunday of Labor Day weekend we ended up taking Bob (our cat) the the 24-hour animal hospital because she was breathing really fast and had no balance. She wouldn't lay down all the way, she kinda was avoiding her stomach touching the ground. Steve noticed that there was something wrong when she tried to jump on the back of the couch and fell. It caused us to really worry, so we took her to the hospital just to be safe.

The vet at the hospital said she was fine. She didn't see anything abnormal and she said to keep an eye on her. She said it was most likely a cold, so she prescribed some medicine that we had to give her twice a day.

We didn't see any improvement on Monday... or Tuesday... or Wednesday... or for the rest of the week. In fact, she seemed to just get progressively worse. We both had a lot going on and neither of us could take her to the vet until Friday.

Cathy had her first field trip to the North Carolina Legislative Building and the Capitol building in Raleigh on Thursday. She had fun and enjoyed seeing both places, but couldn't take off work.

Steve had important meetings and was not able to get out of work either. The soonest that we could get her in was Friday (the 7th). Steve took her in after work.

At this point, she was not able to even stand up and had NO balance. She was anti-social (very much the opposite of how she normally is) and she wasn't really able to chew. She could lick her food, but not actually chew. We knew there was something REALLY wrong when she refused to eat turkey... which is her all-time favorite thing to eat.

Bob was very weak and not even able to meow. She could still purr, but not meow... she was moaning all the time.

The vet told Steve that he couldn't diagnose anything without blood work, but it was most-likely a Potassium deficiency. He said that with medicine and special food, she'd be able to come through and live a healthy life.

We both kinda assumed that that was the problem. Never in a million years would we have imagined that she had something much worse.

On Monday, the vet called Steve to tell him that the blood work came back and it wasn't good. Instead of being a curable Potassium problem, she had an incurable disease... FIV which is basically the feline form of AIDS. He said that he'd support anything we decided to do, but we really needed to think about Bob's quality of life. Steve sent Cathy an email at work telling her the bad news... and then asked her what she wanted to do. She called him right away (her kids went to lunch)... and together we made the decision to put her down.

Cathy had a conference scheduled for 4:00 that she rescheduled, and came home right after school. We had the vet appointment for 5:00... and as soon as Cathy got home (4:20)... she went to find Bob. Bob was on the floor in our bathroom and was laying in the doorway. She was on her side... and Cathy layed down on the floor and cried and cried and cried. She pet Bobby and listened to her purr. Bob couldn't really move... she was somewhat paralyzed and confined to that spot. Cathy had about thirty minutes alone with Bob and she cried a lot and asked Bob to go on her own. She asked God to take Bob out of her misery and let her die on her own, rather than from something we did to her. Cathy couldn't imagine having to actually be there when the vet put her to sleep forever.

Steve called Cathy at 4:50 to tell her that he was running late and asked her to meet him at the vet. She gathered Bobby one last time and carried her limp body downstairs to her cat carrier. Cathy drove to the vet through tears... and when she got to the vet, Steve was just pulling in. Cathy opened the back door to the Escape and saw Bob's back leg bent (which was weird because she had been so stiff)... and it looked like she was trying to itch a spot on her neck. Cathy scratched the spot for her and Bob's eyes got really big... and then her whole body relaxed and she kinda moved positions.

Steve came to the car and took Bob. We went inside... and the tears started to flow even harder. Neither of us were ready to say goodbye to her. They let us have a minute with her, and as we opened the cat carried to get her out, Steve noticed that she didn't appear to be breathing. Her eyes were still big... but she wasn't breathing. The vet technician checked and said that she couldn't officially confirm anything, but she didn't appear to have a heart-beat. The vet came in and checked, and confirmed that she had in fact passed on.

It was so very sad... but Cathy was releived that she was able to go on her own. She was a great cat... the greatest that Cathy has ever known. Bob was her 21st birthday present and Cathy hand picked her from her litter. She drove home with her and Bob was snuggled up on her chest... and from that moment on they've been inseperable. When Cathy went through her divorce, her ex had all the animals for about a month. It was pure torture for Cathy to be going through the divorce, and not to have her cats. She was able to bring Bob and Haid to her apartment (Cu was her dog that her ex "had to have" and then later got rid of). Bob has been such a sweet kitty... and her life was cut short by a terrible disease. If you ever had the pleasure of meeting Bob... you know how cute she was and what a great personality she had. Cathy and Bob had a very special bond... they would have conversations together (weird right)... and Bob was always by Cathy's side. She would sleep on Cathy's head... right next to her pillow, and occasionally was known to actually eat Cathy's hair. Bob liked to beg for food while Cathy was eating... and Steve would get so mad whenever Cathy gave in. Bob was one of a kind... and missed so much more than words can express. There's a hole in our hearts that can't be filled.


To make things worse, the vet told us that FIV is transferrable through saliva. Our cats all share a feeder and water... and he was very concerned about the other five cats. We immediately began to worry about their lives. It was awful to lose Bob, but there's no way we could stand to lose all six of them.

Steve took Toebe and Tommy on Wednesday to be tested and we got a call Wednesday night saying that they both tested negative. On Friday, Steve took Mindy, Hurmin and Eddie in, and again, all three tested negative.

So the good news is that all five are okay... but we still lost our Bobby. We had her cremated, and Steve was able to bring her home on Friday. It's been an exhausting week of tears for both of us. Just been a really bad week.

Keep us in your prayers...
The Walkers

This is a slide show in memory of Bob... she was the best cat ever.