It's been a month now and I sure miss him

RIP Coal
1999 - 2013

Yesterday marked a month since I put Coal to sleep and I feel like now I can write the post that I've wanted to write since the day he died. 
I'll just put it right out there, I'm so not a cat person. The only cat I've ever really loved was mine and he came to me by fluke. Coal was my brother's cat and when Ben went away to work many years ago he needed someone to watch the cat for a few months while he was away. Fast forward a few weeks and Jim and I were headed over to the Mainland from Nanaimo to pick up a cat we had never really talked about getting. Like I said before, I've never been much of a cat person, but for that big brother of mine I would do anything.

Coal had quite the journey to get to us. My cousin drove to my uncles house and then drove him (which he hated the crate and the car) to the airport in Penticton, then he flew to Vancouver where Chris picked him up and drove him to Horseshoe Bay where we walked onto and then off the ferry to collect him and got right back on and went home again. The first night we got him home he came out of the crate and sniffed around both Jim and I. The next day we fell in total love with each other. He snuggled up to me on the couch and didn't stop doing it for the next 9 years, right up until the very end.

These were taken in his first days with us

When we had had Coal for almost a year I ended up going home to PR for Christmas and it had been exactly a year since Ben asked us to watch Coal. He knew how much I had fallen in love with him and how much he loved me and he just knew he was never getting his cat back. He went so far as to draw up very official adoption papers that he wrapped up and put under the tree for me to open on Christmas morning.

His favorite place (and human) to sleep with

He loved these oil heaters in every place we had them.

Loved to snuggle with me and my warm computer on my lap

In his skinnier days he liked to sit in some sinks...until Jimmy turned the water on him one day, that ended that fascination for my poor Coalio

BUSTED! I had no idea he ever did this until the day I caught him.

He loved to sit and sleep in strange places

Moving day and trying to get away from everyone and this where he chose to sit

Always loved my linen closets

He acted tough and like he didn't like him but I know he loved him too

His favorite way to sleep, all curled up in a big ball with his paw over his face

Favorite close up pictures of him

Sneaky kitty

Chilling with his first human Dad

And yes I was that pet owner that dressed my cat up for Christmas

Now some of my favorite photos of him ever taken...and the last ones before kids happened to our life and I found I took less pictures of just my fur baby!

Before I had my kids I loved this little guy seriously like he was my first kid. I remember when he got sick once when I was pregnant I was almost hysterical thinking about having to put him to sleep and I had no idea how I would do it. It turned out he was just really overweight so he went on a kitty diet which never really worked!

Up until about a month or two before he died he was a very solid 18 pound cat. He was a great cat that didn't love a lot of people except for me which I was totally fine with. He loved to snuggle with me, especially under the covers and often right snuggled up to my tummy or sprawled across my arm.

He was a spoiled kitty that for the longest time would only drink out of a cup on the counter in my bathroom. He rarely drank from a toilet but would if he had to. He would not drink from a container on the floor until about a year before he died and he just couldn't handle the jumping down from the counter anymore. He was such a big kitty that you could literally hear his thud from 2 floors away when he jumped down from there!

When I was pregnant with James especially (I think he started to decline a bit in the past year when I was pregnant with Jordie) he would love to climb onto my chest/belly and sleep up high up there. He loved to be near me, and would just look at me when the baby would kick at him. He loved to purr and to petted, but only on his terms. He didn't particularly like to be picked up or held but would sometimes tolerate it for a select few people. He loved my sister, but really didn't like my parents. My dad is the only person I ever know he bit!

Some pics from my first pregnancy with James

He was so good with James when he was a baby...and once he started moving around and wanting to be wherever he was!

Aaawwww....a favorite photo for sure. James reading his The Very Hungry Caterpillar book to Coal on the stairs before bed.

These two had a very special relationship. We made sure James was raised to respect Coal and his space and his stuff and to not bug him. He did love to hug and kiss him but was usually really good about leaving him alone. Only once did he ever swat at him and it was totally provoked as James had been bugging the hell out of him and I warned him that Coal was going to attack him if he didn't back off. Just a second later I heard the cry, and I went running to see tears streaming down James's face but not a single mark on James's face. He had swatted him with just his paw as a warning to back off. He never again caused him to meow at him or swat him. Coal learned that if he was pissed off he should just get up and walk away and hide somewhere.

Now pregnant with Jordan

Some random photos from the past 7 months

He was actually being quite gentle and Coal was loving it!

The first time I think I got a picture of them together

Probably my favorite photo ever taken of my two little ones. 

"Helping" me with my class project

  

The next pictures were taken on our last night together. By this point the poor guy couldn't really move so I made him a little bed on the floor where the boys couldn't/wouldn't easily get at him.

These were the first and only pictures I think I ever got of Jordan sitting up with Coal. He only started sitting shortly before we found out Coal was dying and I didn't think to take many photos as I really didn't want Coal to feel attacked by Jordie.

He was already learning to be gentle with Coal. I'm sad that he won't be able to grow up with him, but he'd been such a good kitty for so long, it was his time to go.

After the boys went to bed he slowly walked down the stairs and struggled to climb up to snuggle with me on the couch one last time. I picked him up and made him a comfy spot beside me on both the couch and the bed  that night. My heart was breaking as I was taking these photos knowing that they would be the last ones I had of him. It was one of the hardest and saddest nights of my life, knowing where I was taking him the next morning. I kept waking up all night and checking on him and all night he just sat awake. He was clearly sick and ready to go. Sadly too, Jim had just left for work a few days before I realized it was time to do it. Up until the day before I realized, he had still been eating and drinking so thankfully it did happen very quickly and I know he didn't suffer, which was what I promised him and myself when I knew he was coming home to live out the last days of his life.

  

When the time came for me to say goodbye to him I knew in my heart that he had lived a really good life with Ben before me and with Jim and I for the past 9 years. He was 14 years old and was a great companion and friend to me for the years I had him. Because Jim was out of town my sister kindly offered to come with me and I have to say that it was a very humane and loving experience. I know some people can't be there at the end but I just couldn't have him be alone. When the vet gave him the sedative I just picked him up and held him until he came back into the room. Then I just stood and cried and petted him until he was gone. It was definitely one of the hardest experiences of my life but I was proud of how I handled it. I couldn't have done it without my sister by my side.

I really have no desire to ever have a cat again, but we all know we make those sacrifices for our kids and I don't doubt that maybe down the road we may have another one, but certainly not anytime soon. We got off lucky that James is so young still that it hasn't really phased him that Coal is gone. As kids get older that pet passing thing must get much harder. My 9 year old niece was sobbing when I talked to her the next day, as she loved Coal very much too (note the Christmas cat picture with her when she's really little!).

Since his passing I've been going to bed with a hot water bottle that I tuck near my tummy just to feel the warmth there like I used to. It's not nearly as soft or comforting as Coal was but it's all I've got now. The thing I will remember and miss most of all is when he would climb up on the bed and come right up to my face buried in the covers and would swat at it until I lifted the covers and let him in to snuggle. That, and taking up more of the bed than my poor Jimmy! :o)

I'll miss you, my first baby, Coalio.

And lastly a short video of him in a really happy moment. He was an indoor cat but when allowed outside for brief times this is what he would do!