In Loving Memory of Seymour

Seymour was my orange tabby. He was born on March 30, 1994. He was the sweetest, most affectionate cat. My nickname for him was "Big Orange". In fact, most of the time I just called him Orange. He was the only male kitten in a litter of 5 kittens. He was the only orange tabby in the litter. I am extremely partial to orange tabbies so I was very excited when I found out we had an orange tabby. I named him Seymour after Seymour Krelborn in the movie "Little Shop of Horrors".

Seymour was a very vocal cat, he was always purring and meowing around the house. He would follow me around and meow until I would sit down on the couch. Once I was sitting down, he was immediately on my lap. He would sit on my lap and sleep as long as I was there. He loved to sleep on me while I watched TV. He was most happy sitting on me and being petted. He was definitely a lap cat. He loved to play in boxes and bags and his "cat condo". Any time we had boxes in the house he would climb inside. When he was younger, he would climb inside soda 12-pack boxes and shoe boxes to hide. When he was older, he was too big for those, so we got him kitty condos and other places to hide. He also loved catnip. We would put catnip inside a tube sock and he would play with it until he would practically pass out! It was so funny to watch him try to keep it away from the other cats. Seymour also had another talent. He liked to jump and let me catch him. He would jump either from the ground and let me catch him or jump from the couch and let me catch him. It was pretty fun to do and entertaining for guests to watch.

But, his favorite pastime of all was sleeping, of course. Seymour was the all-time world-champion of wierd sleeping positions. I think he was sometimes auditioning to be a contortionist in the circus or something. Some of the positions he would sleep in just did not look very comfortable.

Seymour lived to the age of 10 years old. He seemed to be sick with some kind of flu or stomach ailment. He was acting lethargic and he was vomiting for a couple of days so we took him to the vet. When the vet took his temp, I was shocked to find that his temp was 10 degrees below normal. The vet did a blood panel and we found that his blood sugar was a whopping 700+! My cat was diabetic and I never knew it. Until this day, he had been perfectly fine and healthy as far as I knew!! Now, his organs were shutting down and he was dying. The doctor gave him insulin and put him on an IV and told me not to expect him to survive the night. I went home crying and expected the worst. Later that night, the doctor called and told me that he was still alive and that he was not any worse, and that he would call me first thing in the morning-- this was at 10pm. I was hopeful that he would recover enough to at least live the rest of his life on insulin.

7:00a.m. the next morning, the vet called and said that Seymour was extremely weak and that his health had declined and that we needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. We jumped in the car and drove down there immediately. Sadly, before we could make the 20 minute trip to the hospital, he passed away due to liver failure. When we got to the hospital, they brought his little body to me. He was still warm. I held him and petted him for around 30 minutes and asked the vet to shave a little patch of his soft orange fur for me to keep.

We had two of our other cats' blood sugar tested after what happened to Seymour and found that they were also diabetic. Fortunately, they are early enough in the disease that we will be able to treat them by managing their

diet. I am so devastated by this loss that I want to tell everyone to have their senior cat's blood tested to check their sugar so that this doesn't happen to them. His senseless death could have been prevented by an $11 blood test if I had known about it sooner.

I am crying as I make this web page. I have been crying for days now. When I sit on the couch I still wait for Seymour to come sit on my lap. I expect to see him walk around the corner any second now and see his sleepy face and hear him meow for me in his special way. The house seems so empty even though there are still other cats here. I love all my cats dearly, but they are not my Seymour--they are not my Orange.

Just this side of Heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

"When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food and water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they miss someone very special to them; who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The bright eyes are intent; the eager body quivers. Suddenly she begins to break away from the group, flying over the green grass, her legs carrying her faster and faster. YOU have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together......."
(~Anonymous)

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