Goodbye My Brave Friend Petey

If you look at my avatar pic next to my name, that's my Petey. Today, on Thanksgiving, Petey finally gave up his struggle to live and is finally at peace. I hope he found comfort and is looking after his baby sisters.who passed away over these last few months. He was the 4th of a litter of 5 beautiful babies born June21st. All 5 were born with Leukemia. He was the 4th to succumb to the sickening ravages of wet FIP. It is a hoorible, unmerciful disease. His momma was a stray who showed up here (as many do) just before I saw her pregnany belly. She ran away when they were about 8 weeks old. If people only spayed and neutered, there wouldn't be needless suffering like this.

   He held on much longer than his sisters, with the FIP fluid showing up at least 2 months ago. He slept on my chest every night and last week, I made the choice to have his fluid drained, trying to give him some relief. I don't think it affected him either way. This morning, he could no longer walk, his muscles completely failing him. He tried to eat but couldn't do that, either. Falling down, breathing heavy, zoned out and being exhausted, he allowed us to take shifts of him lying on our chests for comfort. I debated all morning taking him to be PTS. The emergency vet is more than an hour away, they use gas at first (I hate that) and no local vet is compassionate enough to help off hours ever. Driving my boy so far to have strangers do that had to be weighed against his comfort. It became pretty obvious that he was giving in to his disease. His breathing settled into a slow pattern and although he didn't seem to be in pain, we gave him some pain med to relax. About 430, my little guy took a final breath and passed away. Although it was hard, I am glad we kept him in our arms surrounded by love, instead of a long rush to unfamiliar people and smells. People are right when they tell you that you will know what to do when the time comes.

   Petey was a beautiful soul...a little boy born looking like the Little Rascals dog Petey. He was a lively, prancing fella before the FIP took the joy from his soul. He loved to wrestle with his brother Buddy and spend hours on the hill soaking up the sun on pretty days. As always, he craved human companionship, loved to knead my chin so gently while he layed on his back for his daily belly rubs. That's where he often fell asleep and once the fluid started building, he needed that more than ever. He loved to kiss me and lick my face having the happiest eyes I have ever seen. If I walked, he followed and he sure loved his food. Everyone who met him, loved him.

   My baby boy, my best pal, my little angel...I love you and this has left a gaping hole in my heart. You were never ever just a cat. You were the epitome of love, unconditional love and I miss you. Rest in peace angel and love your sisters. Wait for me at the bridge.

I was following your other post. Breaks my heart to read about this. Goodbye Petey...and thank you TnTrouble for showing these guys so much love. I hope you never have to go through this again. I wish no one ever had to.

Rest in peace little guy and know you were loved.

Poor little guy, and his sisters, too. He was lucky to have experienced so much love in his short life. RIP, Petey.

I am so sorry - Petey was just beautiful.  If only being loved could have beat this horrible disease....Petey and his sisters were blessed to have you in their lives, and thank you for caring for them so much.

You all are so wonderful and loving and it made me cry all over again today, but in a good way. It feels like extra arms wrapped around my boy and the baby sisters that preceeded him. Thank you so much for the compassion and carrying me through such a sad journey for him. I wish I could move you all to the same street and we could hang out til our kitties have more affection than they knew how to handle. You have been amazing.

Beautiful Petey and his siblings

Oh Brenda, you are such a loving, brave, and generous soul. My heart goes out to you for all that you've been through with Petey and his siblings. Your special bond with them no doubt helped to ease their transition into their next phase of "being".  

Rest in peace little Petey. Such a bright flame, extinguished far too soon. 

My heart is so heavy as I read this.  I am so sorry for your loss, I know it's hard.  You are right though, no matter how much it hurts we do know when it's time.  You are such an amazing and loving Mom and Petey and his siblings could feel that!  Again, I'm so sorry for your loss.

RIP Petey

I watched you struggle with the decision about draining the fluid, and you and your babies stole my heart then. FIP is just a horrible, horrible disease. I am just SO thankful we've never had to face it with any of those we've rescued, and I am SO sorry for Petey and his sisters - and you that you had to endure this. I really admire you for having the strength to make the decision you did. It's not an easy one, but I'm SURE it was the right one for Petey. :heart3:

I am holding you and Buddy close in my thoughts and heart. I hope Buddy will be spared from the suffering of FIP. :heart3:

Fly free, Petey.

I read this with a very heavy, sad heart . I am heart broken for you . Petey was very, very special. You have given so much of yourself these last few months caring and fighting to save these sick babies. I am so sorry for all of the kittens sufferng with that cruel disease. They left this earth knowing love, compassion, kindness at your hand :heart3:. You have a gift and great strength to have been able to endure these losses and fight hard for them. But the toll on your heart is steep and painful. I am so so so sorry.

Play peacefully sweet baby Petey You were loved so very much :heart3:

Where on earth did this site get such an amazingly kind group of hearts. I thank you sooooo very much for every one of you taking the time that you have to send such compassionate words to me. It has been the back that carried me when I thought I couldn't take much more. Again, thank you for every single word.

Awww bless his little heart, you've both certainly been through it 

Have fun at the bridge Petey. You'll have lots of foster Mums at the bridge to look after you now

 

Hello, I found your posts today regarding FIP and followed the thread to this post .  I am so devastated right now... we just found out today that our sweet Millie likely has FIP.  It has been a looooong month of tests, vet visits, and finally an abdominal tap and fluid sent off to the lab, again.  She is barely 5 months old.  Her story is an amazing one and she is an amazing little fighter...

I am in the same boat as far as weighing whether or not to have the fluid drained from her abdomen.  She is huge right now, but has a desire to eat and walk around, pees in the catbox but is scarce with the pooping.  I feel sick having to make the decision, knowing that death is inevitable for her.  She is the product of about 17 yrs of feral litters at a house with someone who had no desire to be responsible with her pets.  She was found, along with 10 littermates... ages ranging from about 2 wks to 4 wks.  There were about 3 moms nursing all these babies... we were able to catch 2 of the moms and had them spayed immediately, ears clipped and then released them into my moms neighborhood.  Sadly one was attacked by what we think was a coyote in my moms front yard.  The other mom is still around (my mom feeds her outside).  Anyhow, Millie was one of the younger ones so we bottle fed her.  She was just delightful... just a sweet natured kitten who purred all.the.time.  I never knew such teeny tiny kittens could purr at that age, but she sure did... and even now she is always purring.  I am just heartbroken that this is happening to her.  So far none of the other littermates is showing symptoms and even weirder, Millies blood work came back fine.  She did test positive at the 1:1600 coronavirus titer but her cbc's were good, her Feline Leukemia and Feline HIV were negative.  No fever at all during this whole ordeal... 

I just wanted to tell you I appreciate your posts on the forums... and years have gone by since you posted them... you may never even see this post from me.  I just wanted to let you know I appreciate your comments about draining... and I'm so so sorry for your Petey kitty .

My condolences.  Glad he is no longer suffering.