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In Memory of
Rocky
December 1982 - May 22, 1999
Diagnosed with diabetes
February 1994 |
We remember...
...the first time we saw you. You were no bigger than my hand. When they set you on the
floor at the vet's office, you puffed yourself up and crab-walked away from us. Where did
you come from? We never knew.
...how you 'helped" us put clean sheets on the
bed, hiding under the sheet. When we peeked under the covers--how wild your eyes were.
...when we touched you when you were dozing you said, "errrrrt."
...your infinite patience as you sat on the edge of a field waiting for a mouse to move.
...kissing the top of your head.
...trying to catch you at dusk to bring you inside for the night. You would hop away from
us just as we were about to pick you up, you would let us get close again, and then hop
away again. We called it "in the night mode."
...how you would rattle the closet doors to wake us
up in the morning.
...how you looked when you walked towards us--with your tail straight up in the air.
...you sitting on the desk, in the window, watching for us to come home.
...how terribly sick you were when you were first diagnosed with diabetes. Each day we
thought we would lose you. We had to force feed you and coax you to hang on. We got
through that and had over five more years with you.
...how if there were two available laps to choose from, nine times out of ten you would
pick V's.
...how you loved to play in a paper grocery bag.
...how you bit me if I petted you too long.
...lifting you onto the bathroom vanity so you could drink out of the sink.
...how you sat with me most mornings as I ate my cereal. Just as I would finish, you would
go to the sliding glass door and look out, sometimes wanting to go out.
...carrying you from window to window during our last winter together so you could see
what was going on outside.
...how we avoided saying the word "eat" in front of you if it was not time,
because you knew what it meant and you would get excited.
...how as a kitten, you would "fetch" a wine bottle cork when we threw it for
you. That stage didn't last long--perhaps you realized it was more fun for us than for
you!
...calling you and V "my boys."
...the way you felt pressed up against my legs in bed.
...how you looked the last time we saw you. Your
tummy was shaved and there were staples in your incision. You tried to raise your head and
a series of whimpers came out of your throat. I had never heard you make that noise
before.
...your many nicknames: BooBoo, Bunky Boy, Pretty Little Pink Nose, Sweetpee, Stinkweed
(when you were bad), Rockster, Pretty Boy, Sugar Poppy, Twinkle Toes...
...setting the microwave timer to remind us to give you your second feeding, after your
insulin injection. You would get excited when it went off and come to find us. And if we
were cooking something in the microwave, we would always try to catch it before the timer
went off. We're still doing that...
...listening to the sound you made coming up the stairs to the bedroom, as we lay in bed.
Then you would jump on the bed to greet us.
...measuring your water before and after you drank.
...the alarm clock going off on weekend mornings, and not wanting to get up to give you
your insulin--but doing it anyway.
...how the fur on your neck smelled after you had been outside--like fresh laundry dried
in the sunshine.
..."squinty eyes" that spoke of love, as we talked to you.
...taking care of you, worrying about you, and how patient you were with ear pricks for
blood-glucose tests.
...you leaping in the air to catch a cicada, and then
that horrible crunch as you ate it!
...when I would reach down to pick you up and you would stretch one front leg over the top
of my arm, so my arm cradled your chest.
...singing to you in the car on the way to the vet's.
...how much you loved lounging in a sunbeam.
...all these things and more from our 16 years together. We will never forget you sweet
Rocky. You will be in our hearts forever.
Beth and Vito
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