A Sad Day

It is with sadness that we decided to have Moses, our 18 year old Siamese, put down. Like everyone else here, he was a rescue....
Around this time 7 years ago, we were living in Ottawa and Doug was the chef at Lapointe Fish in Hull, PQ. He was biking home, took a short cut that he usually didn't take, and lo and behold, as he was going through a field, he spied what looked like a garbage bag. As he got closer, he realized it was a coat with a cat on it. He stopped to investigate and found the cat to be pregnant. Who the hell leaves a cat on a coat in subzero weather in the middle of a field at midnight???? Assholes, that's who! Doug scooped up the cat and coat and tried to bike home. Since the cat was so big, he couldn't get his balance on the bike, so he locked it up and walked 20 minutes home, told me we had a visitor and walked back to get his bike and biked home.
This cat reeked of cigaratte smoke and was HUGE. He was also a he - not pregnant at all. There was a wear mark around his neck where his collar had been removed - I guess so he couldn't be traced, but I could feel a microchip. Bonus - maybe we could find his owners after all. On closer inspection he had been declawed front AND BACK. Who the hell declaws a cat front and back? Assholes, that's who.
We got him scanned at the vet the next day and turns out he was from Cambridge ( a good 5-6 hours away). His original owner didn't remember who she had sold him to and no, she didn't want him back, thanks anyway. So we now had a new/old cat to add to the 2 we already had.
We had also found out his original name was Spike - now highly inappropriate if you ask me. We renamed him Moses and he was all ours - all 21 pounds of him.
It was clear he had been overweight all, or most of his life, as his body had deformed to accommodate the weight - shoulder blades almost 5 inches apart, his back legs severely bowed, two bald patches on his tummy where it dragged on the ground...and the list went on. First thing, put Moses on a diet. Oh he lost weight all right, which made him more agile, so he could eat everyone's food and what good food it was/is. (we do raw food for our pets, but that's a whole other post or two) and so the weight came back - in spite of careful measuring and doing a separate dish for each cat...
There were more health problems and we tried that Prescription crap the vet sells and we got into horrible bowel and urinary tract problems, so back to home made for our boy. He never took off the weight, but he didn't gain any either. As the years have gone by, Moses has become less and less active, so he's only ever had his alloted food for the last 4-5 years and still hasn't managed to lose anything, so we've just kept up with vet check-ups and really didn't expect him to last as long as he has. He was supposed to have a benign bump removed from his nose 6 years ago but the vet said he wouldn't survive the surgery because his kidney values were terrible and indicated the beginnings of failure...little did she know he was planning many more years of eating ahead of him and he wasn't ready to give that up just yet. Yes, Moses was steadfast in his objective to eat and enjoy eating until the end. Which is how we knew it was time to help him pass...he wasn't eating anymore...
Our 7 years with Moses have been uneventful for the most part - he was a gentle soul who loved the very basics of life - food, water, sun and lots of love. He was not overly curious, playful or bold, but just a lovely quiet, wise and beautiful soul. He welcomed newcomers (we've added 3 more cats since moving here) with generous loving baths - filling in for the mothers our new kittens were missing, someone to snuggle up to and gentle guidance on how to be a good boy. Moses has repaid us with constant companionship, few demands, a lovely singing voice and a deep, deep purr. His health has been quite frail lately and I think it was the kindest thing to do for him - we didn't want him to suffer and so we have said goodbye to the wonderful cat that was Moses. Rest well my good friend, I love you.