The End of an Era - remembering a special friend

It was exactly 7 years ago last week when I moved to Brockville, Ontario. Seven years ago, a friend of mine gave me my first pet, Tigger, as a companion in my first apartment on my own. And it was 7 years ago today that I started working at P&G.

Well... I believe I'll remember the details of my first week at this job more completely than I remember the details of that week... It has been quite a roller coaster of winter storms, unexpected trips, and a visit from Norwalk (or other gastroenteritis issue).

On Tuesday night, after getting in late, having a late dinner with my parents, finally putting the kids to bed and relaxing a little bit, we realized, just before going to bed, that we hadn't seen Tigger all night. Our last real recollection of seeing him was from early in the morning. So we start looking everywhere for him - even disturbing the kids' sleep to go check in their rooms and closets. Trev went to look outside, thinking he may have gotten out when he got in with the kids or when my parents left after dinner. We looked everywhere twice. Finally, on a third trip to the basement, Trev found him laying in the middle of the floor "breathing funny" (his words, not mine). He was panting, short shallow quick breaths and seemed quite miserable. We had noticed that he hadn't been himself over the previous few days - laying and sleeping most of the day and night. He was acting like most other cats, but definitely not like our lively (albeit sometimes annoying) Tigger. So we called a local vet and they had an after hours answering service which paged a vet that was on call for the area. I spoke with the vet briefly and decided to take Tigger in to see her, not wanting to wait until the morning. So at 11pm, Tigger and I got into the car and drove across town to meet her at the animal hospital where she worked.

Tigger was in respiratory distress. He was foaming at the mouth and just couldn't seem to take a good breath. The vet was terrific, really trying to figure out what was going on as quickly as possible and she seemed really genuinely concerned for Tigger. She did a couple of x-rays of his chest and did an ECG. Looking at the results and through much more thinking and listening to his heart, etc. determined that it was one of two things: a large tumor was growing near his heart and causing it to not function properly or he was having rapid heart failure which would cause fluid to flow into the lungs, both causing the respiratory distress. Either of these prognoses were not good for our poor, loveable companion. So just like that, within a few short hours of finding him on the floor, I had to say goodbye. It was the hardest thing I've had to do and I don't want to do it again for a long long time.

We miss him and think about him all the time. He will always have a very special place in our hearts.