On Monday after a sudden illness and week long fight I had to say goodbye to my beautiful orange tabby Samson - just 2 1/2 years old.
He began throwing up on Sunday. He had two vet trips on Monday and Tuesday with X rays and medicine he was still listless, eating very little, regurgitating and swallowing, and not moving his bowels. After exploratory surgery on Friday thinking he had an obstruction, they discovered that his intestinal track was not moving and not a healthy pink color, but grayish. They gave him more than one medication that should have gotten it working, but he continued to decline all weekend. My vet even came in on a Sunday to see him and give him more meds and fluids.
I dropped him off at the vet Monday hoping that with some more care, and possibly a feeding tube, he would pull through. But by noon his organs started failing and he had a stroke. Eventually he wasn't breathing well and I couldn't allow him to suffer slowly so, even though I couldn't be there with him I had to let him go.
As a kitten he had an upper respiratory infection, then problems with his anal glands. In October he went through a UTI followed by another URI and then in November surgery to remove a foreign object from his stomach. He was always trying eat things he shouldn't - like bread, crackers, beans, cellophane, thread, rubber bands etc. And I was so careful to keep small objects and plastic and other things he liked but could swallow away from him. His vet believes that he ate something poisonous possibly chocolate, though I can't figure out what it could possibly have been or when it could have happened. I'll probably never know for sure.
Samson was such a special kitty. He purred as soon as anyone touched him. He was friendly and outgoing, a real "people person" and so young. He was a talker too. His meow when he wanted something or was looking for me in the house sounded just like he was calling "mom." He liked to be carried, or to ride around on people's shoulders. He loved anyone that came into the house and wanted to be with people and playing (almost) all the time. He wasn't what you would call a lap kitty, but he would snuggle with me. He would knead my lap and then curl up there to sleep.
Delilah and Samson in 2010
I'm heart broken and struggling with so many emotions. I'm so angry that this happened to him so young. I feel guilty that I should have done something more to help him. Maybe if I had paid better attention to his stools I would have noticed something going wrong because I don't think he could have poisoned himself. Or if I had weighed him on a regular basis (a goal of mine when the were kittens) I'd have noticed his UTI and gotten him to a vet then maybe his immune system would have been stronger - I don't know. And if he did get into something poisonous (though I've been through the house top to bottom more than once and can't find anything the vet says would cause this reaction) then I feel like I didn't do my job as his mom in protecting him. I'm sad for missing him, and I am sad for his best friend, Delilah my beautiful black kitty, who I adopted with him. She has already started missing him - crying and wandering the house, she stops eating 2 or 3 times a meal to sit at the kitchen door where she calls for him.
I have no answers about how or why this happened to him. I didn't get to say a proper goodbye. And all I want to do is curl up in a tight ball to cry and grieve. But life goes on and I have all these other obligations (work, a job interview, my other wonderful kitty) but other than Delilah, I can't seem to care about any of them. My house is so quiet now with out him and I miss him terribly.
