Goodbye Siddhartha

Well, I knew this day would come. I guess I was hoping it would be later on, but today we put my our sweet boy, Siddhartha or Sidd for short, to his final rest.

Sidd was found by my friend Deeg on the state hospital grounds. She wanted to add him to her family, but her cat Bill would not allow another alpha male in his home. I only had one cat at the time and welcomed him into our little family. That was in the summer of 1996.

He surprised me one day while I was decorating the house for Christmas. He got up on the table and sat right in the middle of the wreath.

Sidd is named for one of my favorite books, Siddhartha. Sidd almost died when I first got him, and I felt I took a difficult journey with him almost immediately on taking him in.

Sidd was an outside and inside cat most of his life until we moved up here in 2007. He loved being outside in the sun. Here he is in 1998 sitting on my friend Joy’s truck out in the driveway.

He loved the deck at that house so when we finished the one here, he absolutely loved to spend time out there.

He would love to be outside but he loved also being inside where he spent a lot of time sleeping.

It was rare that I would be able to sit in the livingroom without him on my lap, even in this past month. In fact, it seemed like he’s wanted to be with me even more since his health has been declining.

When he wasn’t on my lap, he was on the floor here by my feet or close by.

During our life together Sidd only left me once in 2003 or 2004. I was frantic. I visited the usual places – Humane Society and the pound – and put up posters and knocked on neighbors doors. Then three days after he left, here he came limping to the door wanting in. His physical showed no breaks – evidently he had just sprained his leg. He never wandered far from home after that.

I always wanted him to write a childrens’ book. In fact I had designed the cover and even started on the chapters, but he never got around to finishing it. I told him several years ago, as he approached the age of when kitties usually leave me – 11 years – that he needed to get me to write that book before he left. Maybe I’ll work on it this next year.

In November we took Sidd to the vet for what we thought was an abscess in his mouth. It turned to be a tumor. Doc operated on him but told us that he couldn’t guarantee he could get all of the tumor. After surgery, he seemed to be doing good. Then we noticed that the tumor was growing back and now it was growing faster. We took Sidd to the doc last Thursday and were told that there was nothing that could be done.

He was a big cat weighing in at 17 pounds in 2006. A year and a half ago he weighed 14 pounds. Sidd weighed 9.5 pounds today. He had these sweet puffy cheeks, a great disposition (well, most of the time) and was so friendly. When I took him in for his physical or to board, the vet staff would just love him and go on and on about his cute face. He seemed to win everyone’s heart including Dave’s. See Dave’s post about Sidd HERE.

It was hard saying goodbye this morning. He has been a big part of my life for the last 15 1/2 years. He was my sweet baby, a momma’s boy. But I know now he’s at peace next to Shel.