Stretch finally succumbed to his long battle with renal failure. We gave him a kind of kitty hospice for the past couple of weeks after he started on a downhill trend and he began not responding very well to the fluids we gave him daily. He was still happy, had many energetic episodes where he would twinkle-toes around the house and go outside, and talk to us as usual. We groomed him (Laurie mostly), talked to him, rearranged a lot of stuff in the kitchen where he like to hang out to make him as comfortable as possible. He didn’t seem to be in pain even at the end, so we let nature run its course so he could have the dignity of dying at home in the place he loved. I wasn’t sure he would last through the night on Tuesday, as he was very lethargic when we went to bed, but I woke up at midnight and checked on him, I found him staring into one of his favorite water dishes and sticking his paw in it. He was drinking, just doing one of the things he liked best. I petted him and talked to him for a little bit before I went back to bed. When I woke up at 3:00 am, we was laying in another one of his favorite spots. I talked to him some more and scratched his head since I couldn’t reach under the shelf to pet him. After I went to work, Laurie let him outside and she reported his activities to me throughout the day. He laid in his favorite spots outside all day then died late in the afternoon.

Stretch was one of the smartest, most clever and creative kitties we’ve ever had. He could conceptualize things and would also come up with different behaviors to keep himself entertained. After I put on the catio in 2008, Stretch started catching lizards and birds and bringing them in the house. He would triumphantly announce his catch, and then drop the unharmed lizard or bird for us — we’d end up chasing his catches all of the house before we  could put them outside again. On night he brought in a little bird and gave it to me. After putting the bird outside, a had a talk with Stretch and told him as much as he was a cat and as much as I appreciated his presents, he needed to leave them alone. He went back outside and a few minutes later came in announcing another catch. When I turned around to see what critter he had, I was surprised to see a flower from the trumpet vine in his mouth. He trotted up proudly and dropped it at my feet. I praised him and the rest of that summer of 2009 he brought us flowers, and never again brought another animal into the house.

Then he went though his stage of wanting roses in his water dish. He would put is paw on the rose, push it under the water and then lick the water off the petals. He could also see ghosts, and while he never sat on our laps, he would sit on our shoulders and backs. Stretch loved boxes and would be on or in a new box, sometimes before the box made it in the house. He also helped take care of me and Laurie when we both had health crises in 2010. He seemed to understand what we were going through.

Stretch begin having renal failure in 2007. He responded well to his initial treatments, but started having serious problems with the renal failure agin in 2011. He responded to treatment well, and did really well up until a few months ago, when we could see the fluids were not having the same effects. But he lived six happy years longer than he would have without the fluids. We are going to really miss Stretch.

The photos today are from when he was a kitten up through 2010. Here are a few posts with Stretch being clever:

Got that Problem Licked

Stretch does Flour

Sunset Road

Kitty on a Cookbook

Talk to the Paw

If you put “Stretch” in the search, you will see all the posts I’ve done with Stretch in them over the past 2 years on this blog.