needing to vent.......

3 years ago my father in law passed away and we knew after 43 years of marriage she would be very lonely, so we gave her one of our two cats, (shadow- the black cat) to keep her company, she loved the cat. Shadow was the typical street cat, who knew what her family tree was and she was healthy as a horse. She was given to Phil and I as a wedding present 13 years ago and she was 1 at the time.

My mother in law travels twice a year for a few weeks and some long weekends away, during those trips she has had her neighbors and their kids feed/water and change her kitty liter and things have been fine. Cats are pretty resilent and they might be pissed that you've been gone but as long as they food/water and a place to do their business their fine. We weren't so lucky this time.

My mother in law lives in Salem and she flew in from England last night and took a cab directly to our house, there was no way she was going to spend hours in a cab trying to get to her house on Halloween. I drove her home this morning along with my sick daughter and Shadow was just lying there on the couch, she typically hops up and runs away or comes over for a quick pat and toodles off but this time she didn't really move. She was breathing but her paws were cold and she looked awful. We noticed that her food bowl was full but their was no water and the toilet lid was down, we didn't know how long she had been without water. Unfortunately, the family who said they would take care of her wasn't home so we couldn't get the full story so we just called the vet to make an appointment today to have her get looked at. She was either severely dehydrated or for some strange reason got sick and was dying. I left to bring my daughter to the hospital to get a chest x-ray and made sure to have my mother in law call me when she was at the Vets, 1hr later she called and said that the cat was so dehydrated that she was in full blown kidney failure and she was truly suffering, giving IV fluids most likely at this point would only prolong her suffering, so my mother in law decided to just put her to sleep . She called me to tell me and I was just so crushed and knew I had to tell Phil ( it was really his cat) and knew he would just be so torn. ( he was).

About 3:30p my mother in law encountered the neighbor who was supposed to feed and water the cat and his response to it all was, " the kids were so busy I just forgot", I may have gone in once somewhere in the middle of the two weeks, I can't remember" My mother in law said, " she's dead because you didn't give her water, I need to leave now".

He showed no remorse, he didn't care, nothing. Who does this? No compassion or anything for the animal? Did he not care because she was a cat? She suffered badly the vet said, it wasn't a peaceful death, she suffered until we gave her the shot to put her to sleep, who does this? I am so sad right now and angry, I so badly wan't to yell at him and force him to pay the $115 dollars it took to put her to sleep, but I won't. No matter what my mother in law is suffereing in silence, another death, my husband is really sad, his cat of 13 years is dead for no other reason then somebodies selfish reasons and forgetfullness. It's not acceptable to do this to people why should it be ok to do this to animals.

On another note my daughter got diagnosed with a right middle lobe pneumonia today, her fever that was trending downward since her initial spike on Thursday came back with a vengence last night after she trick or treated with her cowgirl outfit on and only a long sleeve and scarf, anyway, I knew something must of erupted so I brought her in and low an behold a pneumonia.

An animal death, my daughters pneumonia, mother in laws flat tire today, what next. Going to bed.