Tuesday was my 51st birthday… Tuesday was also the day that we had to put our Molly to sleep… In one way, it kinda put a damper on some of the birthday celebrating going on – but in another way, sometimes loss reminds us of how much we love all of the beings surrounding our lives…
Molly was our almost-17-year-old cat… She had been having respiratory problems and a number of issues and over the past year or so, she went from around 15 pounds, down to 6-7 pounds… But she had still been playing and eating and seemed to have a good amount of quality in her life… Our vet told us that when she stopped eating, that was probably an indication that it was time… She stopped eating, for the most part, a few days ago – then we noticed on Monday night that her breathing was labored. Laura and I both pretty vividly remember labored breathing, based on personal experience, so we knew that there no longer could be much quality in Molly’s life… With people, we do what we can to save and prolong life – but there comes a time when a patient decides that we’ve been through enough, we’ve fought the good fight, and we’ve done enough… With our pets, it becomes our responsibility to them to decide when that time is…
We had three cats while I was listed and waiting for my beautiful lungs – Kitty, Pinhead and Molly… Molly was the youngest. She came into our lives in 1994 and took over… She became the alpha-cat with Kitty & Pinhead too… Molly was often airborne in the pictures we took of her when she was little… But Molly was also usually the one who curled up with me when I slept on the sofa… Every day, during the three years I waited for my lungs, after my second therapy-pounding treatment at around 2pm, I would take a nap on the sofa and wait for Laura to come home from work… Often enough – Molly would hop up and curl into my belly, purring… She seemed to have a radar for how I was feeling, and she would do that when I was a little scared or hurting – it was comforting and would sometimes get my mind off myself…
Not long after I got my beautiful lungs – our oldest cat, Kitty, developed diabetes… Several weeks later, I was diagnosed with diabetes due to the medications I take – and we joked about Kitty’s diabetes being contagious. Several months later – kinda out of the blue – Pinhead went into kidney failure over a matter of days, and we had to put her to sleep – she was only 10 years old. At that time we stopped joking about me “catching” ailments from the cats… Kitty’s diabetes was just one factor in a group of issues he had – and a few years later, at the age of 19, we had to make the decision to put Kitty to sleep too…
I know that this is not the most uplifting post in the world – and it’s not even really all that much about organ donation… In my heart I know that looking at statistics is sometimes futile… When I was diagnosed with my cystic fibrosis, life expectancy was 14 years – I’ve almost quadrupled that… Post lung transplant, only a little over half of us survive beyond 5 years – and this week I passed 11 years… But there were times while I waited for my lungs when I sat alone with Kitty, Pinhead and Molly – especially Molly – and I would think to myself that there was a good likelihood that at least a few of these cats were going to live longer than me…
On the plus side of all of this – I’ve outlived all three of the little buggers…
So… What does this all have to do with organ donation?!?! Well, maybe not much… Maybe everything… Maybe you too can commit to making a decision that will allow someone to outlive their cats, and somehow take a warped sense of pride in doing so… Please consider organ & tissue donation – tell your family how you feel – and find your state’s registry and register your feelings at www.donatelife.net
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