RIP Rusty 1992 - 2010

Rusty was our little girl. We found her as a kitten, a few months old, with her mom, Sheba. Sheba and Rusty just showed up in our yard one day back in Islip. No one knew where they came from. We already had two cats, Pindar and Shadow. But we couldn't ignore these two strays. Sheba was very people friendly and would come up to us to get petted and we brought food out if we saw them. The apartment complex in Islip was full of stray cats, but these two were different. It was obvious they had been house pets at some point. The kitten Rusty was afraid of people and we couldn't approach her. There was also a larger male cat who was orange and white and we 'named' him Rusty, so this kitten was 'Little Rusty'.

One day we saw Sheba and she didn't look good. The third eyelid was coming up on her eye, and in cats, that is an indication of illness. It also looked like something was wrong with her rectum. I remember we left our door open and she walked right up the stairs into our apartment. That's when we knew we couldn't just leave her out there sick. So we brought her to our vet. She wasn't seriously ill, she had a parasite, most likely from drinking the water outside, and that caused diarrhea which caused a prolapsed rectum and the eye condition. With antibiotics she'd be fine. BUT, and this was a big BUT, she had to be kept inside. We had to decide if we wanted to go from 2 to 4 cats. Because if we kept Sheba, we had to keep her kitten too.

Easier said than done. Trying to catch Rusty was going to become a past time that would occupy us many times for the next 18 years. We tried to corner Rusty in the woods in the complex. No go. The vet recommended a humane trap. Put a little tuna in it and WHAM, you got yourself a cat. Or a squirrel or a raccoon. But we had to try. We left the trap out there. George left for work early. I had to make the later train. I went in the back to check the trap and there she was. I only had a few minutes. I brought the trap with Rusty into the apartment. Foolishly, I let her out in the living room. She took off, she was terrified. Eventually she ran into the small bathroom we had there and I was able to go in and close the door. I tried to grab her behind the toilet, she bit me, hard. But when I picked her up and had her in my lap, she relaxed and really responded to me petting her. She wanted, no, she craved love and affection but was very afraid of people. She simply hadn't been exposed to humans early enough and never became acclimated to them. But she was a very sweet kitten, about 5 months old.

We thought we were home free, but a few days later, my husband opened the sliding door to the patio and Rusty ran out there and leaped right off the patio (we were on the 2nd floor). Luckily we hadn't returned the trap yet and were able to re-catch her the next day. I think that counts as 2 lives for Rusty.

We certainly didn't count on her going into heat that winter. She was only 7 months old and the vet thought too young and then wouldn't go into heat until spring. But she did, at it was LOUD. We had to beg the vet to spay her while she was in heat. They don't normally like to do that. But she managed to howl while she was at the vets office and I think he took pity on us. Even after the spay surgery she was very active and ran away from us. She was still afraid of us, although she loved not only her mom, Sheba, but our other cat Pindar.

Pindar and Rusty became best buds. If Pindar was there, Rusty was there. Pindar was a beautiful Maine Coon looking cat, but he was a mutt we got from our friends in New Hampshire. He was our first cat. Pindar was male and neutered, but that didn't stop him from mimicking a mating act with Rusty, which she loved despite her screeches. She would also stuff herself into the little cat bed Pindar used and they would appear to be busting out of it:


Pindar also used to groom Rusty. She and her Mom, Sheba had a falling out and Sheba would no longer cuddle with Rusty. It was sad. Rusty was at the vet and when we brought her home, she must have smelled funny because from that day on, Sheba wouldn't have anything to do with her. But Rusty and Pindar were inseparable.

Another Rusty adventure happened when we moved. in 2000, we moved from Islip, Long Island to Buford Georgia. When the movers came they boxed all of our belongings up. The next day the truck came to haul everything off. We thought we had all of our six cats accounted for, but we couldn't find Rusty. We were afraid that with all the activity going on she had become scared and managed to get out. We were frantic as the movers continued to haul stuff out into the truck. Finally one of the last pieces they moved was my recliner. As soon as they picked it up, Rusty came tumbling out of the bottom of the chair and ran into the bedroom. Apparently she had crawled up into the bottom where the reclining mechanism was and was there the whole time. Another of her 9 lives gone! We breathed a sigh of relief and were able to drive down the next day with all six cats. Yes, six.


Unfortunately in 2002, Pindar died suddenly and Rusty grieved the most, except for me. But from that point, she became much more friendly and would seek us out for company. If we remained still, she would climb on our laps and allow us to pet her. This was a big change for her. And it was nice for us. In 2006, Sheba died and Rusty pretty much became my lap cat. Especially when I was on my lap top. I used to joke that Rusty wanted to chat on the internet, because she was always trying to get on the keyboard:



Rusty also loved being outside. She would climb up the hill and find a secluded spot and just curl up there and sleep all day. She was so good at hiding, a few times we were convinced that she got out of the fenced in back yard. But she was always there. She never figured out how to use the pet door, so she'd have to wait by the deck door and howl for us to open it to let her in. Or she'd wait right outside. One of her favorite spots was under the grill because it was shaded from the hot sun:



Four years ago, I brought Rusty in for a routine teeth cleaning. She had a bad reaction or they screwed up, but she wound up with a double ear infection and went deaf. Her eye was messed up too, but recovered. Being deaf was actually a blessing for her. She was still something of a scaredy cat, but now that she couldn't hear us, we could sneak up on her and pick her up, or she could sleep peacefully without jumping at every noise. Sometimes it would scare us because she would sleep so peacefully, I'd have to check her breathing to make sure she was still alive! Also, now that she was deaf, she would meow very loudly. She would go outside and howl at anything she saw. A bug, a bird, a stick that she thought was a snake. Even our neighbors would comment on it. I think they thought we had some type of wild animal locked up in our yard.

Along with the deafness, the vet also detected a heart murmur. It was so bad that a year later we had to bring her to a kitty cardiologist. The cardiologist did not think Rusty had a heart condition, but rather thought she was hyper thyroid and that was causing the murmur. A full T4 panel revealed that she was hyper t and we had to start her on meds. This was a bit difficult because Rusty did not like being approached and I would have to hunt her down twice a day to pill her. As I said, her being deaf helped. But I learned it was better for me to wait till she came on my lap and then give her the pill. It became our routine and she accepted it for a lap sit and some pets and brushing.

So life went on fairly well for Rusty. But recently we noticed she was losing weight. And was sleeping more and even thought she would cry for food, she did not eat much. Yesterday morning she didn't come when I was feeding the other cats. I found her in the basement, just sitting there. I brought her up and put her by the food, but she didn't want any. Later I saw her outside huddled by the water bowl. I brought her in and gave her water and she just sat by the bowl and from time to time would take some sips. I decided to take her to the vet. I was concerned about kidney failure which took one of our other cats.

The vet was alarmed at her weight which was down to 4.9 lb from 6 the last time she was in. At one point Rusty weighed 10 lbs, so she was very thin. He wanted to keep her and do some tests. He called later and said the blood work looked good but he detected a mass when he was examining her and wanted to do an xray. When we hadn't heard from him by 5pm, we called and he told me that the xray and sonogram had showed a large mass in her abdomen. He had aspirated cells and they were a fast growing cancerous type. He said he could do surgery, but with her age (18) and weakened condition, it was 50/50 if she would survive the surgery and even then if they could get all of the cancer.

We decided not to do the surgery and told him we would come in. We've been there before. They have a special room to do the euthanasia in. Each time I go to the vet office, I see that room at the end of the hallway and look away. I never want to be in that room, but here we were. He talked to us first and said we were doing the right thing. That meant a lot because our vet is the type that would go the extra mile for any animal, and if he thought it was the right thing, it was. We paid the bill first and then they brought her in. She looked a bit better because they gave her IV fluids, so that perked her up. But she was still very frail and wasn't meowing as she normally did. She passively let us hold her and purred a bit. As George said, she looked ready to go. We took some pictures of us with her and then it was time.

It's never easy, but you have to know that you are doing it to help your baby and end her suffering. It' hurts you, but you have to do it. You have to hold her and tell her you love her and everything is going to be ok. You will be young and pain free again. You will see your Pindar and you and he will be happy together again. All your fear will be gone. And one day, we will see you again. Until then, goodbye little Rusty...